The Issues, No. 1 - Who's Responsible?

It is appropriate that the first issue we are going to discuss is the issue of responsibility. Our Congress certainly has its shortcomings and the majority of the issues that follow will focus on Congress, but some of the problems we have as a nation and as individuals can be attributed to a misunderstanding of who is responsible for what.

There are many examples that demonstrate a misunderstanding of responsibility. We'll touch on two. Frst, a whole lot of people bought houses with fantastic Adjustable Rate Mortgages (ARMs) that had very low interest rates to begin but after a certain number of years the interest rates "adjusted" upward substantially. The terms of the mortages were all contained in the mortgage contracts that the individual buyers had to sign agreeing to the terms. When the mortgage rates adjusted, a whole lot of people could no longer afford the monthly payments. Many people lost their homes and the bottom fell out of the housing market which has had a huge effect on the nation's economy. Certainly, many of those people who were given these mortgages should never have qualified for the loans they were given and mortgage companies should take some responsibility for those situations, but ultimately, shouldn't the individual buyers be responsible? They had contracts that they didn't bother to read and understand and now the government is in the process of attempting to fix the problem. So, who's responsible?

Secondly, and this may sound cold to many of you, but when you own a house on land that is below sea level, protected by man made dikes, and in an area of the country that is sometimes in the path of hurricanes, is it the government's responsibility to re-build your house and your neighborhood when a hurricane hits, destroys the dikes, floods your neighborhood, and ruins your house? Nobody was forced to buy a house and live in New Orleans. This is America and people in America can live wherever they want. So, if you choose to live in New Orleans, don't you think you should be responsible for what happens? So, who's responsible?

The point we are trying to make here is that the Congress, or the government, or somebody else is not always, and, as a matter of fact, is almost never responsible for the bad things that happen. Generally speaking, we, as a nation, seem to think that whatever bad happens is the responsibility of somebody else. No one seems to want to accept responsibility for their own actions. When something happens we either whine to our local, state, or national representatives or we try and find somebody to sue. Many times our governments and the courts come to our rescue and far too many times these rescues set the example that individuals do not need to be responsible.

So, in conclusion, if we want to let anyone know that we are not satisfied with our governments fixing bad situations that should be the responsibility of individuals or businesses who brought the problems on themselves, we should let our representatives know that we are tired of what's going on and that we want them to avoid wherever possible bailing out individuals or businesses that should take responsibility for their own actions. And, before we go off complaining to our governments about any problem we want them to solve, we should first ask the question, "Who's Responsible?"