Asserts Alan Stewart Carl, a moderate blogger: "Yes, insufferable Wall Street greed played a major role as did incompetent, ignorant, servile and just plain corrupt Washington politicians. I’d like to lean back in my chair, point fingers and quietly absolve myself and all the rest of us who neither work on Wall Street nor in Washington. But I can’t."
He continues his commentary: "A lot of us took part in the credit-shuffling game that was the real estate boom. I was even one [of] the lucky ones who sold a property at a ridiculous profit. I didn’t intend for my home to be such a tremendous investment, but I sure as heck didn’t care what cultural forces or what financial shenanigans made my windfall possible. I took the money. Gladly. A lot of other people did too. And many of those who eventually got caught holding the bag were not innocent victims of the system. They were players. They knew they were taking out unsustainable loans but they believed the profits they could make in the market more the justified the risk. They were stupid and wrong. Their banks were stupid and wrong. Our culture that demanded easy credit and high returns was stupid and wrong. We took the wealth and prosperity part of the American Dream and jettisoned the hard work part. We believed that the house flippers on TV were smarter and more interesting than the people and businesses doing real work and slogging out real, if mundane and small-margined, profit. Even as many of us decried our nation’s free-spending, gilded-age ways, we grumbled when our investment accounts fell short of the high returns enjoyed by others."
My response: Mr. Carl speaks for himself on this one. I participated in no real estate speculation, as I don't own a home. I'm not in the "we" on this one. Yet I'm supposed to subsidize others' poor choices, at my financial expense?!
Financial Crisis A Cultural Failure
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Contrary to what the main stream media says, wall street as a whole (capitalism) should not be blamed for the actions and policies set forth by OUR congress. There are, in fact, corrupt men in wall street who partnered with corrupt men in government to engineer a win-win situation at the expense of the taxpayer. Capitalism (and our nation or any nation) will only survive when the good and virtuous people are running it. Which means, come this November, you must vote for good men and women who stand by principle and uphold our constitution and not just give lip service to causes that seem noble and just.
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