Growing up, my grandmother always said that life was a circle: ‘There is a top and a bottom and everything in between. If you’re on the bottom, it won’t last too long. If you’re at the top, enjoy it, but prepare for the bottom to come.” I know she must not have been the only person in the United States with this kind of wisdom, for I have heard similar metaphors before on multiple occasions. As I grew up, I realized that this metaphor was not just for life in general, but for every piece of it, including the economy.
This ‘economic crisis” is just the bottom of the circle. I hate to go against your precious media-driven notions, but the sky is not falling on Wall Street.
Personally, I am glad that the $700 billion bailout plan failed. Unlike other Americans, though, I am glad the bailout failed for reasons other than the media’s shout that it will cost every American over $2,000. I am glad it failed because we live in a democratic-republican society.
Bailing these banks out is socialism. The free market economy that we are supposedly living in does not include the government regulating the markets, so why should it include the government stepping in when the people in these market positions fail? If you believe in capitalism and a free market economy, then you should want to let this play out.
Yes, it may be difficult, but it will come around. Stocks will go back up and the rich people on Wall Street will stay rich and all will be happy. The strong banks like Chase and Bank of America will survive this circle’s bottom and thrive when they get back to the top. The weak, like WaMu and Fannie Mae, will die. That is the way things go. In a few years, there will be more huge banks emerging and more to make bad decisions and die.
Things cannot and will not be constant. If you really expect every company on Wall Street to stay there, then you are nuts! Every company comes and goes, and this is the going of some.
The financial situation we are in is not a crisis at all it is life! If you look at the market as a whole: Yes, we went down 777 points when things went sour last week, but we are making a bounce back already. The Dow Jones Industrial has already regained over half of what was lost when things plummeted. There is no need for a $700 billion bailout.
$700 billion. That number is incomprehensible to most people. Let me put it into perspective for you: That is more than the entire war in Iraq has cost us in the last five-plus years. It is enough money to buy every professional sports team and still have money left over. That is enough to pay four years worth of full tuition, room and board, fees and regular living for the next 3.5 million UR students. That is the next 3,000 classes. I am not exaggerating; pull out your calculator if you don’t believe me.
The failing banks say that they need this money, that the economy needs this money. I think that the financial institutions that gave undeserving people loans, especially mortgages, can suffer their own stupidity. As far as the ignorant people, if you are really going to borrow enough money to buy a house, you should spend the time to look into what you are really doing.
Anyone with common sense will know that you should work out a budget and see what you can realistically afford. You don’t need a high school degree to realize that if you make $50,000 a year, you cannot afford to pay a $49,000 mortgage and still live.
By the way, there is no one that is helping the 98 percent of Americans that budgeted correctly pay their mortgage. Come to think of it, when will we get a bailout for the student loans everyone has? Or a bailout for the antique shop in my hometown that just went belly up?
If the government is going to start getting involved and change the entire basis of our society our economic freedom they better be decently fair about it. I will expect my bailout soon.
Rogers is a member of the class of 2012.
