Disclaimer: This post summarizes my humble opinion; I do not associate myself with any political party. If anything I consider myself to be moderate in my politcal views as I agree with some, but not all, of the agendas both the Republicans and the Democrats support.
In the midst of the economic crapstorm and the general finger-pointing and fear-mongering everyone is guilty of, I am honestly baffled as to why the U.S. government is being let off as easy as it is. Sure, homeowners have taken more house than they can afford and sure, the bankers may have played a big role in accelerating the credit crisis, but why stop there?
We are all undermining the fact that like the bankers the U.S. government has had its hands on an overwhelming amount of money and has been gambling with it as much as the next banker years before Clinton, Bush, or Obama set foot in the White House and it will continue to do so. Yet the U.S. government’s role has been grossly downplayed or even forgotten by some because it has been far easier to paint the greedy billionaire bankers or irresponsible homeowners as the worser of two evils.
Are we forgetting that reckless bankers and homeowners aren’t the only people that have been less than transparent about their dealings? Are we forgetting that politicians also have had agendas of their own?
The government is as irresponsible as Wall Street
Yes, the capitalist system is not always efficient and people lose out and suffer. However the government has proven time and time again that it is fairly inefficient with spending money. When the going gets bad, people suddenly develop what I call “government capability amnesia” and suddenly expect politicians to magically get their act together, magically forget all their agendas, and somehow manage to spend money in exactly perfect proportions and save all our souls. (Conversely, when times are good people, politicians, and bankers alike develop “capitalistic failure amnesia” when they lose their minds with spending and forget that what goes up must eventually come down.)
Despite all this we passively give away and expect the government to manage a crapload of money, giving it a ton of power it hasn’t even earned! Common citizens are supposed to give the government this power, not the other way around.
There is a big danger with giving the government (or anyone for that matter) too much responsibility with so much money especially when it hasn’t proven that it is capable of that responsibility. I suspect people agree with this when it comes to Wall Street; but why doesn’t this apply as stringently to the government? So what if Obama is the second coming of Christ or if Bush is the devil reincarnated; all people have agendas no matter what their job title is, even Obama. Obama, Bush, and all the Wall Street CEOs all have this in common. That said, the government bailing out Wall Street and the auto companies is almost like the blind leading the blind!
Trillion dollar jackpot
The U.S. government is like a poor man who had just won the state lottery. Like many people who win the lottery, since they don’t know how to manage money in the first place, the newly-rich poor man quickly goes back to where he started because of typical purchases made when an average person makes such a huge windfall. Typical purchases and actions include:
- Buying the biggest 20,000 square feet house they can get without taking into consideration the long-term costs of owning such a house (taxes, home insurance, yearly maintenance, etc) –> The government taking loans from other countries and printing money endlessly to support a causeless war and other pet projects with long-term costs that probably will never be recouped.
- Dumping money into the fanciest cars he can dream of because cars are a status item in this country and what better way to show off his new-founded wealth. Because he is so “rich” now, dropping $75,000 on a fancy European car doesn’t seem like a big deal even if cars are generally a depreciating asset and he is not likely to recoup the money; even if he does, the profit is lost by spending additional money maintaining the car. –> The government dropping money into idealistc concepts like Social Security, which is basically imploding on itself with no means of sustaining itself, and playing with ideas like universal health care when it can’t even handle Medicare, another system that is just sucking more money out of the budget with little positive results to show for it.
- Going on several expensive vacations. –> The government wasting money on pet projects that are just plain inefficient and don’t help most people in the long run.
- Retiring early with no other reliable stream of income while maintaining the same lifestyle or better. –> Increasing the federal budget year after year without any other way of finding money to put in this budget besides raising taxes. When will it stop… when the government is taking 95% of taxpayer money?
The comparison may not be perfect but you get where I am going with this. It’s like a kid in a candy store with $50. Who’s to say the government isn’t above all this?
There needs to be more alternatives.
Whether you have $50 or $800 billion dollars, a dollar is a dollar is a dollar. This seems like a concept perpetually eludes politicians. I understand Obama’s appeal and I don’t want to be quick to criticize his actions or any president’s actions; if I were president I know there would be some hard choices to make and the margin of error is quite large. But forgive my skepticism when I say I feel like the same old thing is happening.
What I would like to see is the government reduce its spending and given a MUCH smaller budget so it can learn how to spend money more efficiently before taking on huge projects. If a broke person can stretch 10 bucks, why can’t the government!!!? Affordable health care and excellent education are nice goals and it makes everyone feel warm and fuzzy inside. Unfreezing the financial system can make anyone feel heroic. But it will never work if people think the solution is to throw money at a problem rather than reorganize how the system is built and how the money is spent.
I am not dismissing the role of the government. I believe that government is necessary to an extent because I believe in the power of checks and balances as well as some regulation. What everyone needs to do is quit pissing away money. Right now the government is (sort of) ”bailing out” (if you even want to call it *that*) everybody and their grandma. But just remember that 5, 10, 20 years from now everyone will end up paying premium for the government’s trouble (whether it helped or not) leaving everyone but the government with less money in their pockets. And so the cycle continues.
Joe Six-Pack vs. Politician
Who’s yer daddy now?
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