I’m not expecting people to suddenly go from spenders to amazing wealth accumulators. I’m just suggesting that if some amount of people are forced to smell the coffee by no longer being able to afford what they feel entitled to versus what they need, its a good thing. Not such a bad thing to be brought back down to reality that overconsumption has its perils. If people are forced to re-evaluate their priorities in life, fantastic. If finances force some people to eat out less, and cook at home, maybe it will help a few people stop being McPiggy obese statistics.
People have become fat – literally and figuratively off the bloated loose lending and gratuitous want want want life. What is wrong with the picture when some homeless or people in poverty in Amerca are obese? What does this tell you about want vs need? I say cut the fat. People in Africa would love to be poverty stricken in the US. I say hurray if people can no longer afford their 1000 calorie blended coffee drinks at Starbucks or cannot afford to eat everything their heart desires.
Does the government set a poor example, yes, but we’re a capitalistic society and did our master just serve the wants and piggyness of its people. Sure didn’t hear anyone complaining 5 years ago about having access to too much credit or no doc loans. Regardless of the intervention occuring, bailout or not, I believe the house of cards will all come crashing down one way or another. To the extent the government can avoid complete ruin of our financial system, I support that. Do I support all their tactics,well I can’t really say yes to this and no to that. I’ll be the first to admit that I, nor do I think there is anyone on this planet who can wrap their hands around all of the complexity, interdependencies, predict market emotion, etc. at such a macro level that there is a linear formula out there in which to follow to unwind this mess.
The financial mess we are in is far too complex and far to large for the goverment to bail everyone out. It extends beyond America and into a global financial system. There will be a lot more pain, there already has been pain. I’m just saying the pain is not such a bad thing. Sometimes the only way to learn is to learn it the hard way.
