The other day I received a very flattering phone message from a friend. She said another of her friends reads Grape Did It and asked that I write about the current bailout situation. At first I just smiled and felt all, really, why? It made me feel good to be thought of that way but, um no. Because I am trying VERY HARD to stay non-political these days. So much so that when we went out for drinks the other night with friends - friends who are admittedly scattered in their politics, a fact I find so refreshing - I kept saying things like BUT NO, I DON'T WANT TO GET POLITICAL. I mean, she might've been telling me she needed to use the bathroom and I'm all, what did you say? BARACK OBAMA?
Then again, you could argue the bailout isn't political. The coolest part of it all - if I can find some obnoxious silver lining - is that it does cross the aisle. Even the biggest of big government politicians agree that hey, wait a minute, that doesn't make sense. Perhaps I'm even betraying myself in that one little sentence.
The short answer, the one I'm dancing around right now, is that I don't know. Even if I had a fancy economic degree, or had spent years on Wall Street or whatever, I still don't think anyone knows for sure. Which is also kind of an irritating attitude because who gets to be qualified? Why can't the Joe Schmoe on the street corner pontificate? He has the right, and he also just might have the answer.
My quick and dirty thoughts are anti-intervention. Those who know me well know that already. My insides writhe when I hear some version of this conversation:
"But why did you get a new car again?"
"Well, you know, that old one was just...you know..."
"No, I don't."
"Well, getting shabby. And I'm pretty sure I heard a rattle last week!"
And before you roll your eyes and think man she'd be an annoying friend, at one time or another I could have been on either side of that conversation. And were the person not taking out a huge loan, I wouldn't bat an eye on a fancy new car.
The point I'm trying to make though is the entitlement. Why are we approaching a bailout? Because otherwise life might get scary. Might it? Because of the millions of people who took out mortgages they couldn't afford? No, I get it. Predatory lending. It's depressing. But the alternative is an amount of regulation that stifles the economy beyond even being able to have a nice house WHEN YOU CAN AFFORD ONE. When you've worked long enough and hard enough to deserve.
I find it odd the same people who scoff that Americans, "oh they over consume! SO unlike the Europeans," are the same ones who offer a bailout like this. Perhaps over-consumption is on the downward slope. And I can totally live with that. What I can't live with is a crutch that allows irresponsible lending, borrowing and consuming to continue as is.
This is my last little bit and I'll dismount this horse and try to go back to non-serious talk. But I'm not saying I believe in no intervention at all. I'm not implying there aren't some tweaks here, some lifting of regulations (temporarily) that might get the axles moving again, all of that being a good thing (here I'm borrowing heavily from Dave Ramsey, you can check out online). But I think we'll have to work for it. And I think we'll ultimately be better off.
