Country of entitlement

I remember, as a young man, listening to my grandfather telling stories about the days after the War when he and his friends banded together, worked hard and created a successful business. Anyone who has read Tom Brokaw's book, The Greatest Generation, has read many similar stories. My Grandfather and his generation grew up in a country where everyone had the right to try to make a better life for themselves through hard work, ingenuity, and determination. Now we are living in a world of entitlement.
We can see this everywhere, just look at the discussions revolving around health care and employment. Over and over I hear that we need to take care of those who are without and those of us who have need to pay for it. We are penalized for living the "American Dream." Those of us who have made decisions to sacrifice, to work hard, to get an education, to persevere through tough times and live within our means are now being required to take care of those that didn't.
Being born in our country now has the perception of entitlement, you were born here so a better life is yours just for waking up. Does that sound like a society you want to live in? Are we really at the point where we want to scrap the will to be better and where personal accountability doesn't have a role. Where all you have to do is wake up and you will be provided for? If we allow this to happen, then we all owe our grandfathers who fought so bravely and worked so hard a big " I am sorry that we have let you down." We at Answer the White House Phone are not ready to concede and hope you will join us in speaking up and making sure the efforts of the greatest generation do not go for nought. These are our opinions and we look forward to yours.

AIG Surprise?

It was fascinating last night to see all the reports on the AIG bonuses. Has nobody been paying attention? Take a moment and think about who is involved, Senator Chris Dodd who accepted the most AIG money out of all the politicians in Washington. He is the Senator who coincidentally put the provision that protected the bonuses, into the "Bail out Money" restrictions. You have President Barack Obama, who accepted the second most. Finally look at Timothy Geithner.
There is no one else in America with such a poor record over the past 18 months. From the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the hasty combination of Bear Sterns and JP Morgan Chase. The complete bungling of the Government take overs of Fannie, Freddie and Indy Mac just to name a few. To know that the President is counting on Tim Geithner speaks volumes about his intentions. Can you imagine leaving your business in the hands of someone who doesn't even uncover the executive pay packages, which spelled out these bonuses, during his " due diligence. Can you imagine how fast someone like Sandy Weill would have found those? Probably as fast as they could get out the words, get rid of them."

What a Ten Days

Incredible! Over the past ten days we have seen financial crisis like I have not seen in my nearly 40 years. The dramatic influence of short sellers on Wall Street, single handedly bringing down some of our most prestigious Wall Street names. The $700 billion bail out, that didn't save Washington Mutual, the nations largest Bank failure in history. Republicans and Democrats, once again, trying to prove who is right. Two Presidential candidates who have no business experience, riding into Washington to save the day. Both ended up leaving, without any measures taken to solve the crisis. Is this a sign of what is to come?

Average people are left wondering,, "I didn't know we had an extra $700 billion stashed away for a rainy day? Where is this money coming from and why weren't we using it before to assist in what has been a year long financial unraveling. The two candidates have done a nice job of giving us sound bites for the news, most of which tell us very little about what each candidate is actually going to do, to move us in the right direction. Also very little has been said about the fact that this may just be another correction in our market. I would say most people, who had no political agenda over the past couple of years, saw financial disaster coming a few years ago. Over history, we can see, all markets correct themselves at some point in time, if they didn't, anyone who invested would have a portfolio that always goes up. The "Creative Mortgage," where someone making $40K a year buys a $300K house, seems to have been based on the fact that our housing market would always go up, but there was no way it could.

This is going to be an exciting couple of months and I hope all of us are doing our homework to make sure we are electing the right officials in November, as there could be no more important time than now to do so. These are my opinions and as always, I look forward to yours...

Interesting Fact

I just read a very interesting fact that really puts or priorities, during the election in perspective. One out of every 733 births results in a child with Downs Syndrome. Compare that to our current foreclosure rate of 1 in 1000.
We hear everyday about our struggling economy, which arguably can be linked to the actions of "responsible adults." Look at the credit card industry in which less than seven percent of all balances are actually past due. People bought mortgages they couldn't afford and charged balances they can't pay back. Yes it is true that many people's financial difficulties come from unforeseen circumstances, but they are curable with lifestyle cut backs.
Our children do not have this privilege. Imagine the good that could be done with the billions we are using to bail out "responsible adults," if we put that money to work to help those who had no choice.
As an upper middle class father of two daughters it would make more sense to me, but I am only footing the bill...these are my thoughts and I look forward to yours....