Bailing out the wrong boat and forgetting to row
I only feel sorry for Americans while listening to the BBC's. We're so far away and the announcers talk in cultured voices about the "bleak situation in the United States." The weak dollar. Rising gas prices. The mortgage crisis. Home foreclosures. They sound so kind and sympathetic for "middle class Americans feeling the pressure of a sagging economy." I actually start to feel bad, momentarily forgetting that in my part of the country those poor suckers are the same dumb saps who drive around with "God Bless America" bumperstickers and ever thought invading Iraq was a good idea, and by and large voted twice for the Worst President Ever.
Imagine two boats: one a big ocean liner with double hulls and one a rickety little overcrowded fishing boat. That seems to be the new model of America. On the big boat, rich folks stand on the upper decks drinking cocktails, and whenever there's trouble, they get the first handout. Big boat springs a leak, all hands to the bilge pump. Little boat springs a leak, well, let's just say the little boat has had a leak all along. This is how the government has reacted to the mortgage loan crisis: rushing to bail out the very banks who made the irresponsible decisions that led to the crisis. Don't even bother blaming the people who took out loans they had no hope of repaying--it's the banks' job to evaluate borrowers to establish their worthiness. The borrowers are being held responsible for their mistakes--they're losing their houses. The banks, not so much.
Worse, bailing the banks out isn't going to solve the problem, which currently is a wasteland of foreclosed houses. In Detroit alone, 73,000 houses were repossessed in 2007. 73,000 houses sitting empty, abandoned, or gone to auction to the highest bidder. Neighborhoods blighted, property values down, tax revenue plummeting. How is this going to help the economy?
Of course, the people in the big boat don't get all the blame, because the people in the little boat aren't rowing. No, I take that back. They're rowing, but they're rowing in the wrong direction. They're rowing towards an impossible future, where everything gets better every year. How can people think that's possible? Really, we really think that forever and ever and ever and ever, the "next generation" is going to be "better off" than their parents? How the fuck would that work? We're already consuming our natural resources at an insupportable rate and the planet's population keeps going up.
The fact is, we need to turn this boat around and row ourselves closer to shore. We need to seriously work towards contracting our lifestyles to one that's sustainable. Use less energy, consume fewer goods, be content with less. Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without--remember that?
Denmark once again this year rates as the "happiest country." Ronald Inglehart, who oversees the study into national levels of happiness, believes that happiness has a direct correlation to: peace, democracy, and a sense of freedom to choose how to live your life. Of course, Denmark is prosperous, but note that doesn't seem to be the big element in happiness. It's not how much stuff the Danes have or how much they can buy or how quickly their economy is growing. The United States, still the world's richest economy, only ranks 16th on the national happiness scale.
Comments
Interesting post, Redz. And you're right.
Like a friend said to me the other week - these are such hard times.
I do remember that "make it do" saying. My parents seemed to have lived by it. They managed their money well and saw to it that we never had to do without. But they lived through the depression and what followed, so they learned firsthand how to budget everything and spend/save wisely. I wish I had learned more from them about stuff like that than I actually did.
Crappy times.
Good post.
Yes. Yes. YES! and may I add Yess!!!!
You have hit every nail on the head and your analogies of the big and little boats and the rowing in the wrong direction.
I think you're right it isn't how much you have that lends itself to happiness, I think it is how secure you feel that no one is going to take that peace, democracy, and sense of freedom and kick it out from underneath you.
But maybe, just maybe...bloggers can make a big difference...
In a class I once took, the professor said that every empire comes to an end, and so shall it be with the U.S. He just really hoped he wouldn't be alive to see it happen. Our efforts in Iraq and, heaven forbid Iran - if recent reports are to be believed, seem like nothing more than a dying man grasping at one last breath. With that, I am going to go to the restroom and cry a bit.
I have been reading the website How I Spent My Stimulus with great interest. The number of people who are using their stimulus (a previously unknown phenomenon to me) to pay for gas is startling, particularly when the US actually has relatively low gas prices. The other thing worth noting is the number of people who drive around fuel efficient vehicles - and it seems often do so because they cannot afford to upgrade to something more environmentally and economically friendly.
I wonder if it is time governments start giving out grants to people who want to trade in their gas guzzler for something better. In Australia, you can get a hefty (like $2000) rebate if you convert your car to LPG. It makes converting older cars much easier for people who don't have that kind of money to spend.
How I Spent My Stimulus also seems to demonstrate that it is only the middle class who are able to spend their "free money" actually stimulating. Much of working class America seems to be spending it on debt. It certainly demonstrates the need for countries to develop a 'safety net', that is, decent unemployment benefits and social security, a decent health care system where people who need medical care get medical care without having to take out a loan, and a proper education system!
But, here's the thing:
yes, stabilizing the economy is a good thing. Let's say they did the plan to bail out borrowers. Eventually that money would have to come from somewhere. You can bet that it'd be the same place that they're paying for the war effort. So, i'm saying there's a hole in that boat, too.
Bailing out banks? Certainly some should fail.Personally, I'm of the opinion that we should bail out no one. Let the market that we've all decided to worship decide. But, the issue isn't so simple as "banks=greedy bad guys borrowers=hapless victims". In a lot of cases, the bad guys were private mortgage lenders, and companies that advertised that they'd help people get away from the big, evil banks. Meanwhile, the banks got duped, as well, and were oversold onmortgage backed securities that were underperforming. So, if you want to stabilize the economy, you have to look at stabilizing some banks, because otherwise, lending will get a whole lot worse.
They did give out tax breaks a few years ago if you bought a hybrid (my sister did) here's an article I haven't read all of yet but I agree they should give people more of an incentive to ditch their guzzlers. I just saw TWO Hummers out here in the suburbs yesterday.
Also, Redz, I agree of course about the whole throwaway society stuff. I am guilty of it too, but I do try to be mindful of using rather than tossing and buying something new. I really wish people would stop being such consumers.
Also people are encouraged to live beyond their means. Banks give people loans for stuff they really can't afford and middle class people want to LOOK like they are richie riches, so they buy watches for thousands of dollars, purses for hundreds, etc., etc. whatever they see on TV or in magazines, they want, even though if you put them into a room with the people who actually CAN afford this stuff, they'd stick out like a sore thumb. I'm not meaning that in a snobby way, I'm middle class too but you could doody me up with expensive shit and put me on a billion dollar yacht in Monte Carlo and I'd still be middle class. If you can't afford to have your Rolex stolen, you shouldn't have one. heh. whatever, I need to get some work done.