Aaron Harp

What Crisis?

So far I have yet to be effected by the economic crisis in any measurable way.  I think somebody might be pulling my leg.  From what I gather, the crisis is that people aren't spending money left and right anymore.  People are losing houses because they can't pay their mortgage.  People can't buy houses because they can't get a mortgage.  They need a mortgage because house prices have inflated because of the previous availability of mortgages to anyone.  Stores are closing because way too many were built when economic times were good.  People are no longer spending money they don't have so our economy is falling apart.

Here's my solution: let it fall apart.  The bailout is simply trying to buy back this lifestyle so that we can all go back to living our comfortable lives.  I don't really get how a nation can be trillions of dollars in debt.  Who are we indebted to?  All I know is printing more money can't be good for the plunging value of the dollar.  If we keep putting bandaids on the system it will eventually explode in much graver ways than it might right now.

These words from Chelsea's grandfather offer a needed perspective through all of this:

I was born in 1934, in the midst of the depression. My father worked for an oil company (Humble Oil and Refining Company, which is now Exxon-Mobile), so we had enough to live on, but we drove the same car all through WW II;  gasoline and tires were rationed, so we didn’t drive except when we had to.  I got one new pair of blue jeans every year.  It cost a quarter to go to the movie-matinee on Saturday afternoon.  Nobody had any money to spend, but it was a good time to be alive unless you lost a family-member in the war.

It is a lot different now. People just throw pennies down on the sidewalk.  Everybody has money for every electronic gadget they want.  Every young couple buys whatever they want on credit, including houses and cars, instead of saving for many, many years, like they did when I was young.  Nobody wants to go back, but I believe the old times and ways were better for the soul.

Please excuse my ramblings because I am no economist, these are just my observations.  It really doesn't seem that bad to me.  Maybe instead of throwing more money around trying to fix our lifestyle of throwing money around, we should slowly adjust to living within our means.  Seems like it could work.