Big Problems, Big Solutions, Big Mystery To Me

I am not extremely knowledgeable about my nation's or the world's economic workings. And, I am a big supporter of personal responsibility. I am also a realist. I am going to try to bring all of the statements I just made together in this post. Bear with me on this, it might get ponderously verbose before I get to my main points.

The U.S. House of Representatives just voted down a huge bill that may or may not have helped out our economy in the long run. But, when it was voted down, it definitely didn't help today. The largest single-day loss of points by the Dow Jones on Wall Street directly followed the vote. I don't know how the government was going to get the money to put into this action. And, that fact makes me a whole lot less uneasy about the fact that they did not get this done so quickly. I also am weary of quick fixes for problems that took so long to come to a head. More often than not, they are band aids. But, something needs to stop the bleeding in this country until we can figure out how to truly correct the problem.

As I understand it, the government was going to drop about $700 Billion US into the banking system by buying out bad mortgages and assets to ease up the banking industry's capital problems. I don't know if this would be a good thing or a bad thing. In my opinion, the fat cats at the top wanted to make a quick buck off of the average joe. They should have been able to foresee that the average joe was going to have to default when those "too good to be true" loans adjusted upward. Knowing this, could they not foresee that by bankrupting their customers, it would cause them to lose chunks of their customer base. In effect losing their money, accounts and loans, by taking a small sum quickly. It seems so very shortsighted and greedy. So, it seems the institutions were taking advantage of uninformed buyers to make a buck knowing that they would bankrupt more than a few. In the bank's defense, we average joes should have also known that if it adjusted upward, we would not be able to afford it.

I know the old adage "Buyer Beware" very well, but, where did the integrity go? Seriously, is it so hard to take a little less of a profit and rightfully earn peoples' trust by making the smart business and correct moral decision at the same time? One of the main issues that I would love to know about this bill is, when we as a country give these private institutions this huge bailout, what happens to the company leaders that put us in this position? Do they get reap the rewards for being profitable again? If so, I say let them burn. It is a dog eat dog world. And, sometimes the consequences of our actions actually do catch up to us. If that means big business suffers and we have to learn the hard way, SO BE IT. I've had to do that in my personal life and I know I am better for it. Maybe the same will be true of doing it on a national scale. After all, look at how we came out of the wars and depressions of the past century and a half. Always a little more knowledgeable about the problems that put us there.

When this bill was voted down, a whole lot of the "no" votes were cast because the representatives were afraid of losing their jobs in the elections five weeks from now. And, some are blaming it on a very partisan speech by Nancy Pelosi. Don't vote against something that you feel will work for our/your nation because it is against your personal goals or because someone from the opposite party just hurt your feelings by placing political blame on a national problem. I understand it has political consequences, but if you all weren't so self important, you might realize that those of us that are less inclined to play God, need you to make the right decision to help us out. Come on people, do your job, and do what is right for this country. If that means voting against this bill because you have factual evidence that a quick fix is only going to hurt us in the long run, that is fine. But, if you are voting it down out of spite for the "opposition", please remember, we are all in the same boat. Don't sink us with your pride. Your job status should come a very far second to actually doing your job. Do the right thing, people, or you may end up without a job anyway.

I am very unsure of what would happen if this bill passed, and as I said earlier, quick fixes scare me. But, the few articles I have read about the bill, the vote and how everything transpired, lead me to believe that the bill seems like a good thing on the surface and is supported by the leaders of both parties. It also sounds like people are voting against it for personal and professional reasons. On an issue like this, I think they should vote against it based on facts that show it is a bad decision. This is too important an issue to use personal feelings to decide it.

Update: The more I learn about this bill, the more I think voting it down was a good thing. It just seems like a knee jerk reaction to a huge problem. With what I am hearing and reading, the bill is pretty much going to print some extra cash, based on a number ($700 billion) that has been plucked out of the air because "we wanted a large number." according to the Fed. Seems like a very slippery slope and printing money can only make it worse. The dollar is already losing ground we don't need more of them out there. All I know is we need to make an informed decision with this. If we screw it up, we could slip pretty far down the slippery slope that we are perched upon right now.

Another Update: Or more precisely, another random thought on the matter. If we accept this bailout, are the banks falling into the same trap that the people did? I believe that if Congress were to have passed the bill, the banks would eventually have to pay back the line of credit being extended to them according to the plan. Peoples' dependence on credit to help them live beyond their means is what got us all in this mess to begin with. If we let the banks do this too, what happens?