Bailout... Financial crisis... Foreclosure... Bankruptcy... They can all be explained by one word: GREED. Here, climb on the soapbox with me; we've all got plenty to say on this.
Two sides of greed blew up in our faces. There's the average lower-to-middle class American who jumped into the housing market at a level just a bit higher than they could afford (or a lot higher!). And there's the financial big boys who were glad to grant a shaky mortgage to said American because it nicely padded their already large paycheck. Of course it's not exactly that simple, and there are a lot of scenarios that don't fit into that snapshot but, absent these two factors, we wouldn't be where we are now.
A lot of Americans have lost sight of the substance of a good life. It isn't the *things* you buy or the gated community you live in or the size of the flat screen TV in your livingroom. (Not that there's anything wrong with those!) But it's the whole stupid idea that you can live beyond your means without having to pay the piper at some point...
Unfortunately the piper bill is being delivered in bulk mail to many American households.
One of the best "money" books I've ever read was part of the very first college class I took in the summer of 2007. The class was "Money, Consumers and the Family" and it featured two books by the same authors that helped explain how the financial "rules" have changed in the last 50 years in America. Of the two books, my favorite is "All Your Worth" and I think it should be required reading for every college student (and for non-college students!). You can get the gist of the book on their website here. It's all about living within your means.
I sure wish more Americans had heeded these precautions before getting in over their heads. Now we ALL owe the piper!
10 months ago
3 comments:
Amen!
Interesting that when our son went looking to rent an apartment he couldn't do it because his credit score was too low. It wasn't that he had "bad" credit. It was that he had no credit. He wrote letters to the apartment management explaining it all, how he had always paid his bills on time, how he owed no one anything, how he didn't own a credit card and didn't want one. The apartment still rejected his application. He finally found an apartment that would rent to him, but it was a ridiculous, and frustrating, process.
The whole system is screwy, and it's just wrong that those of us who have made many sacrifices to live within our means all these years are now getting stuck with someone else's bill.
Beth
Ummmm . . . I think the point was more like, we ALL fall prey to greed, and we need to hold ourselves accountable and live within our means. It's easy to blame the rich, but that's another form of greed -- wanting more of what they have. I believe money is not what makes a person happy, and I thank God I can rely on him to give me whatever I need. After all, everything, including money, belongs to him anyway!
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