The Issues, No. 45 - Two Points That Need to be Repeated

In the last couple of postings I have made the points that greed has led to our current financial crisis and that ignorance has so far kept us from passing bailout legislation to solve the crisis. I think these two points require additional discussion.

The out and out greed of our financial institutions has been the major cause for our financial meltdown. But it's not the only cause. A very large contributing cause has been the out and out greed of the American people who undertook home loans they knew they could not repay and ran their credit card debt up to the point they could not even make the minimum monthly payments. Sure the financial institutions encouraged people to take on the debt, but no one made anybody do it. So, we just can't blame the financial industry without assuming some of the blame ourselves.

When the financial institutions finally collapsed and we had a real crisis, it appears that ignorance set in preventing a measure, at least initially, to solve the problem. People got mad that the financial institutions failed and didn't want to do anything to help them and their grossly overpaid executives recover. What is particularly amazing to me is that the majority of the members in the United States House of Representatives, went along with their angry constituents and voted to defeat the proposed bailout legislation. I guess I can excuse the ignorance and shortsightedness of the American people; they just got mad and maybe didn't have a grasp of the devastating effects no action on the part of Congress would have on us, as individuals, and on our economy as a whole. But I just can't find any excuse whatsoever for Congressmen who are supposed to be our leaders and are elected, at least to some degree, to protect us when something as bad as this crisis occurs.

Our representatives in Congress, especially in times of severe national crises, need to rise above our ignorance and do what is right for the country and forget about the votes and campaign contributions they might lose. They need to step up and tell their constituents when they are wrong and do the right thing even if it may cost them their careers in Congress. We need representatives in Congress who are above our individual anger and ignorance of the issues and who can look at the big picture and take action that is best for us and the country, and not necessarily what's best for them and their political careers.