I am a firm believer in personal accountability and I do think we, the spending and borrowing Americans, have to shoulder a lot of the blame for this financial mess. Yes, NY Wallstreeters were the drug pushers but we played the part of the drug addicts and we took the drug. That is our fault. We cannot say, "They made me buy that house". We bought it. Pure and Simple.
This is where I disagree with James Moore at the Huffington Post. Moore
puts forth the theorythat we did not get to participate in the "party" but we are now going to pay for the clean up.
My belief is we participated in the party big time and we (the Consumer) have been on a binge for 20 years. My response to his article is below:
I disagree with this article on one point and that is when he says we "did not get to enjoy the big money profits". Well, I hate to say it but we did. Let's face it, America has lived far over it's means for a long time and we all were part of it. People making very small salaries living in huge houses. Houses that have living rooms bigger than the entire house I grew up in.
Do American's really think they would have lived like they did through the 80's, 90's and the beginning of the 2000's if it were not for this crazy system? I always wondered what the "end game" would be of an economy which ran on huge debt. Well, we now know. While the "greatest generation" left us a great country, free of communism and facism, we are leaving our children with piles of debt and a debunked banking system.
We are like a bunch of drunks who are waking up after a 20 year drinking binge. I clearly believe this is a result of the Republicans feeding this to America: "We can wage war, lower taxes, spend beyond our means and all will be good" has been their mantra.
But, on the other hand, no one forced the needle into our veins. Like heroine addicts, we allowed it to be injected into us; hell, we injected it ourselves. And now, like those addicts, we have to go through withdrawals, as painful as they are, to get off of this drug.
So, my point is simple. We took the drug and should shoulder a lot of the blame. Indeed, as many lose houses, jobs etc. we will shoulder that blame whether we want to or not. But, that does not mean we should reward or bail out the drug pusher. The drug pushers should go to jail for a very very long time and have everything they own confiscated. This includes the leadership of the Republican party. To the Gallows with them!