I've been thinking about what has gone wrong with the economy. I think one problem is that for the past decade, we Americans have let other people do the thinking for us on the subject of our own money. Maybe we thought the "experts" were smarter than we are. Maybe we got caught up in the excitment of a high flying stock market, and soaring home prices. Maybe we were tempted by easy to get credit and ads urging us to buy buy buy.
Did any of you have a sneaking suspicion even five years ago that all the fancy new types of mortgage were not such a good idea? Did any of you just sigh and think that if the mortgages were legal, they must be OK?
One reason I'm voting for Barack Obama and for Mark Warner and Judy Feder as Democratic candidates for Senate and House is that I believe we ought to be able to look to the government to regulate financial industries in the interest of the public--meaning real people and families, not corporations.
But until there are changes in the legal and regulatory climate, (and even if there are changes) I think we ought to go back to seeing if financial arrangements make any sense. It doesn't make sense to think that home prices will go up forever, but it also doesn't make sense to think things will go down forever. If someone tells us to buy something, we should ask ourselves whether they would give the same advice if they weren't making some money off it.
On a related note, it occurs to me that many of the McCain supporters I have met while canvassing for Obama have a financial interest at stake in the "war on terror". Many of them are military or defense contractors or intelligence agency employees. Wouldn't it be nice if they could step back for a moment and ask themselves if they would have the same assessment of the threat level if their paycheck didn't depend on worrying about the threat level? I do believe there are folks out there in the world who hate Americans and want to hurt us, but I wonder if our country and the world are well served by puttiing too much of our tax dollar into security.
Just a few thoughts, not a sermon.
My son and a friend have been canvassing for our local congressional campaign. Today was about 97 degrees, without a cloud in the sky. Yesterday, about the same, and very high humidity. Yesterday, the friend ended up with heat stroke. Today, my son came home sunburned all along his collar and the back of his neck. I'm glad they are true blue for the Democrats, but I hope all you eager volunteers out there remember:
Drink lots of WATER or gatorade for electrolytes
Wear SUNSCREEN!!!
Wear a HAT!
Advice from the woman with mosquito bites who has finally learned not to go out without bug repellant.
