Maybe I'm naive but...
Let me tell you a story about a man named Henry.
Henry was a person, just like any of us. He had a wife, a couple kids, and lived in the suburbs in a nice place. He seemed to be living the dream, but he had one small problem. He owed a bit of money to a guy named Bill. Actually, it was a LOT of money. So much money, it was going to take Henry about 30 years to pay off all this debt. But Bill was a very patient man, and he was willing to ever-so-slowly collect on his debt. Bill had no living relatives at all, so he enjoyed using his wealth to help others out -- at a price..
One day, Henry found that Bill was very, very ill, due to bad kidneys. To his surprise, Henry found that he was a blood match to Bill and could save him by donating a kidney to this man, but it was a VERY risky operation and not one that Henry could take lightly. After all, Henry had a family, while Bill had none. Was it really worth risking his life to save his lender's? After all, Bill had no will and no next-of-kin. If Bill died, Henry would be completely debt-free. Why should he help?
What would you do???
Now, obviously, my analogy breaks down because Bill is a man, and human life still requires the utmost dignity. So maybe some of you would donate the kidney to save Bill's life.
But in real life, Bill is a big, heartless bank. Some organization that makes money while sitting on their ass and doing nothing but threatening to foreclose your property unless you pay them. Is such a ruthless blackmailer really worth saving?
Ever see the movie Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels? Eh, you should if you haven't... Anyway (SPOILER ALERT) these regular joes owe a lot of money to this big time mob chief, but he ends up getting offed, and the regular joes realize they're completely in the clear now.
See? Isn't it a good thing for you if your lender goes under? Who do mortgagees of Washington Mutual make their payments to now??
Now, I know there's a flaw in this thinking. I can't believe that all these banking geniuses and other financial gurus have been poring over this financial crisis and not one has thought along these lines by now. So obviously there's a problem, which you can point out to me if you like.
We sure do get agitated and scared, though, about things we have absolutely no idea about, right? EVERYONE's got an opinion on whose fault this all is, what we need to do to fix it, and so on. But you know what? I'll bet there's only a handful of people in this nation that REALLY understand the economy and can talk intelligently about the subject. All the rest of us are trying to meld our pre-existing thoughts with the little snippets we get from the media to make sense of this, and we're all failing horribly. I'll bet 98% of Congress doesn't even have a clue on what this all really means, yet they're supposed to make decisions regarding it.
That's how life is, though... We're expected to make important decisions every day, some more important than others, and most times, we have nowhere NEAR enough info to even begin making such a decision. But we make the choice with the best knowledge we can and hope it doesn't end up screwing us.
We are but blind men shooting at clay pigeons -- at least, we're HOPING they're clay pigeons! Maybe we're shooting at other blind men; maybe the gun is entirely facing the wrong way.. And even if you happen to be one of the few hunters that actually has SIGHT in these grounds, do you REALLY want to be shooting in this area, given your present company??
Henry was a person, just like any of us. He had a wife, a couple kids, and lived in the suburbs in a nice place. He seemed to be living the dream, but he had one small problem. He owed a bit of money to a guy named Bill. Actually, it was a LOT of money. So much money, it was going to take Henry about 30 years to pay off all this debt. But Bill was a very patient man, and he was willing to ever-so-slowly collect on his debt. Bill had no living relatives at all, so he enjoyed using his wealth to help others out -- at a price..
One day, Henry found that Bill was very, very ill, due to bad kidneys. To his surprise, Henry found that he was a blood match to Bill and could save him by donating a kidney to this man, but it was a VERY risky operation and not one that Henry could take lightly. After all, Henry had a family, while Bill had none. Was it really worth risking his life to save his lender's? After all, Bill had no will and no next-of-kin. If Bill died, Henry would be completely debt-free. Why should he help?
What would you do???
Now, obviously, my analogy breaks down because Bill is a man, and human life still requires the utmost dignity. So maybe some of you would donate the kidney to save Bill's life.
But in real life, Bill is a big, heartless bank. Some organization that makes money while sitting on their ass and doing nothing but threatening to foreclose your property unless you pay them. Is such a ruthless blackmailer really worth saving?
Ever see the movie Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels? Eh, you should if you haven't... Anyway (SPOILER ALERT) these regular joes owe a lot of money to this big time mob chief, but he ends up getting offed, and the regular joes realize they're completely in the clear now.
See? Isn't it a good thing for you if your lender goes under? Who do mortgagees of Washington Mutual make their payments to now??
Now, I know there's a flaw in this thinking. I can't believe that all these banking geniuses and other financial gurus have been poring over this financial crisis and not one has thought along these lines by now. So obviously there's a problem, which you can point out to me if you like.
We sure do get agitated and scared, though, about things we have absolutely no idea about, right? EVERYONE's got an opinion on whose fault this all is, what we need to do to fix it, and so on. But you know what? I'll bet there's only a handful of people in this nation that REALLY understand the economy and can talk intelligently about the subject. All the rest of us are trying to meld our pre-existing thoughts with the little snippets we get from the media to make sense of this, and we're all failing horribly. I'll bet 98% of Congress doesn't even have a clue on what this all really means, yet they're supposed to make decisions regarding it.
That's how life is, though... We're expected to make important decisions every day, some more important than others, and most times, we have nowhere NEAR enough info to even begin making such a decision. But we make the choice with the best knowledge we can and hope it doesn't end up screwing us.
We are but blind men shooting at clay pigeons -- at least, we're HOPING they're clay pigeons! Maybe we're shooting at other blind men; maybe the gun is entirely facing the wrong way.. And even if you happen to be one of the few hunters that actually has SIGHT in these grounds, do you REALLY want to be shooting in this area, given your present company??