Average Americans have been living a cozy existence for many decades now and have become very spoiled. They expect the economy that provides their lofty life styles to keep chugging along regardless of what they do. So many feel they don’t really need to learn basic economics…after all economics is rather dry and boring. So now we have a majority of Americans who are economically ignorant ripe for the picking. And of course these breeds a class of preditor politicians who will feed off this herd of docile dummies.
A majority of Americans today feel they can have an endless supply of free government goodies and that evil rich people will pay for it all. Unfortunately a minority of us know that this is plain ignorant. We know that in a few years as the predator politicians lounge around with their lavish retirement benefits, the average American and their offspring will suffer greatly in dire straights from the economic turmoil the actually inflicted on themselves.
But throughout life humans learn their most valuable lessons by suffering the consequences of their own mistakes. Children who burn their fingers dramatically learn the danger of fire. Can America as a whole learn from the mistake of believing in the lies of the class warfare and welfare state predator politicians? Can a majority of Americans learn that wealth has to be created before it can be redistributed and that wealth creators should be admired not despised?
Can a generation of Americans be brought up being weary of predator politicians and their false government solutions? Can this new generation learn that all of societies needs are addressed by wealth and that wealth creation is a fundamental and vital role to be viewed with respect and admiration? And can the next generation devise a system that rises the wealth creator to a position well above that of the predator politician who reigns supreme today? Maybe if the punishment Americans suffer today is harsh enough can it lead to a society with a realistic understanding of basic economics.
White Lightening: I have two words for you, poor angry man, and they are not "Merry" or "Christmas".
HAH! I am no democrat, that is a given.
September 17th, 2009 at 9:27 am
another democrat apologizing for us and you are a hypocrite sir because you are one of the people you are talking about. we were not spoiled we were just living our lives as was our right. a right to our per suit of happiness. we worked for our living paid taxes and most of us obeyed the law of the land.
now what you have is a man that came to office to change all of that and he too apologizes for us to the world
before this you were enjoying our way of living if not you had options.
But now since being brain washed by a kenyan that wants this country turned into something else you now are dissatisfied with what we had.
you throw out this garbage to make people think it was bad before and the country has to be changed. well I for one thought our country was in the right direction and of course thingscould be better but to change the whole concept of what america is about is a far cry from changes it is forming a whole new way of life. you know we are headed for marxism but you deny it and refuse to see it. I wasn:t spoiled I worked for my freedom by contributing to the economy , paying taxes and doing what I was suppose to do. I wasn:t rich but satisfied that i was making my own way. Now look. we have no jobs, prices raising everyday and tax hikes that is ruing us. no money in our treasury more illegals than we can handle and still coming to take over the few jobs not paying taxes sending money back home . all they are here for is barrys votes for the next election. If you were spoiled then that;s your cross not ours.
September 17th, 2009 at 9:27 am
Obama is the cancer in the testicles of my wallet.
September 17th, 2009 at 9:27 am
We’re being punished right now because of American, stupidity excess and greed. Look at the housing market. No matter how many times someone said home prices were over inflated and unsustainable not a damn soul listened and the thumbs down kept coming.
Gas prices rose and GM kept making SUV’s even building new truck plants while Toyota and Honda did the opposite. The signs were all there. Some chose to ignore them others paid attention.
I guarantee when GM emerges from bankruptcy they will continue to misread events around them and it will be business as usual.
The housing cycle has also repeated at least 3 times over the last
20+ years.
We never learned.
September 17th, 2009 at 9:27 am
The majority of Americans are not taking handouts from the government. The extremely loud minority are. The majority are hard working and take care of their own lives while the minority sit and wait of government assistance. At the rate we are going the next generation may have a majority of freeloaders, but I doubt the system can hold up that long. The hard working majority will take control again or America will go into bankruptcy. Hopefully the former happens first.
September 17th, 2009 at 9:27 am
We’re all being punished….the economy is getting worse, we’re losing our jobs, etc…the problem is, we’re not learning from our mistakes. We’re just repeating the same things over and over expecting a different result - that’s the definition of insanity.
September 17th, 2009 at 9:27 am
We are being punished, Obama is our president and he’s raping our treasury.
September 17th, 2009 at 9:27 am
We already have been…4 dollars a gallon for gas under Bush, and Lee Raymond gets the payoff…
http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1841989
September 17th, 2009 at 9:27 am
Like they say - - you can’t make a weak man stronger by making a strong man weaker.
September 17th, 2009 at 9:27 am
Yeah, because living under a bridge isn’t really all that punishing.
September 17th, 2009 at 9:27 am
The funny thing about the universe is that it always tends to punish ignorance, sooner or later. Wise people forsee and avoid or at least mitigate disasters, and recover from them sooner and better. Some poor people will make their fortunes in these times by being conservative, and some wealthy people will be ruined. So it has been, and so it will be.
September 17th, 2009 at 9:27 am
Sure. Why not? The people are irrelevant. It’s the Government and Capitalist Banking that must survive. Don’t you know anything?
September 17th, 2009 at 9:27 am
Many already have, those who voted for Obama and lost their businesses and jobs in the GM / Chrysler Scandle.
God Bless America
September 17th, 2009 at 9:27 am
It’s really easy to blame the sitting President when things go south, and it’s really easy to credit the sitting President when things get better.
That’s exactly what is going to happen in this case. The economy did its normal dip under Bush, and everyone pointed fingers at him. It will do its normal rebound under Obama, and everyone will credit Obama with it.
Stupid should be painful.
September 17th, 2009 at 9:27 am
We are being punished. By pushing ourselves into a democracy (majority or mob rule), we are setting ourselves up for the eventual dictatorship which, history shows, always follows.
September 17th, 2009 at 9:27 am
Americans allowed themselves to bite off more than they could chew financially- my parents and grandparents generations and before lived within their means but not the babyboomers and below- they want it now and will run up the credit to get it. This is OUR own fault but no one is really getting the message and thus it will continue. NO ONE made you run up the credit card
September 17th, 2009 at 9:27 am
Under Obama’s policies, Americans will not suffer any consequences for their bad behavior when it comes to finances. Companies make bad loans, we bail them out. Car companies don’t make sellable products and give in to the union demands, we bail them out. People buy much bigger houses than the can afford, we bail them out. And now, even though 77% of the people are happy with their health care, we are going to go into debt 3 trillion dollars to bail out the few who don’t like their health care.
Spoiled children don’t learn anything unless the parents hold them accountable for their actions. In other words, parents are to blame for spoiled children.
September 17th, 2009 at 9:27 am
They will be.
Some of us though have lived a rather frugal lifestyle but I am afraid that the class envy that has been alive and well for so many years that those of us that have been ahead of the curve, ( even though we had no privilege ) we will be targeted as the evil rich, ( just because we saved and did not live above our means).
September 17th, 2009 at 9:27 am
Cut and Paste?
Come on.
September 17th, 2009 at 9:27 am
Is you understanding of basic economics realistic enough to know that two per cent now own most American wealth, which is the real cause of our problems?
September 17th, 2009 at 9:27 am
"A majority of Americans today feel they can have an endless supply of free government goodies and that evil rich people will pay for it all."
What free government goodies do I get? Is it the interstate that’s about 2 miles away from my apartment? If evil rich people will pay for it, why do I pay taxes. No one has ever accused me of being rich.
September 17th, 2009 at 9:27 am
Or, realistically, we CAN blame the rich because the problem of government reliance has been increased with the continuing widening of the wealth gap. The people that control the money choose to give less and less to their workers in the form of pay for honest work, instead choosing to keep more and more of it for themselves. CEOs choose to cut jobs to save money, then demand lavish bonuses for saving the company money. Taxation and government services is one way to try and even this playing field. Wealth IS being created, but Reaganomics has failed. You can’t remove taxes from the rich and expect that to flow down through the economy, because the rich don’t get rich by by paying workers what they’re worth. They get rich by paying workers as little as they can.
September 17th, 2009 at 9:27 am
Look outside your window they are already being punished. Hopefully this recession will be an eye opener so they actually learn from their mistakes. And BTW its not all of the Americans fault the federal reserve and the government also play a big role in this economic crisis.
P.S the reason why i say "They" is cause im not at the age where i impact the economy by my actions
September 17th, 2009 at 9:27 am
Americans are being punished with a severe recession and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.
More important than whether ordinary Americans understand the economic system is the question of how well the financial institutions and government watchdogs understand economics. Apparently they didn’t understand it too well. They thought that greed should rule and that unsound financial activities should be unregulated.
Rather than following the failed and misguided policies of the Republicans that focus all attention and benefit on the wealthy and allow greedy businesses to run amok, the attention has to be on the well-being of the ordinary consumer. Consumers are the basis of the economy and they are the true wealth creators. Their wages, the lending practices that affect them and their economic advancement should be the major areas of concern on the part of a government that purports to represent them.
September 17th, 2009 at 9:27 am
Why should we be punished for something we had little part of? Congress passed reckless bills and spent like there was no tomorrow, meanwhile the average american was filing his taxes and figures out he will have to pay 5000 bucks more. We have been punished enough for other peoples actions.
September 17th, 2009 at 9:27 am
yes.it is a pity that a great nation is being slowly destroyed from within.once upon there were lots and lots of American exports .now it is all mostly limited to few categories and rest is all imports .now there is talk of shifting away from dollar as global currency . that will make the situation far more serious as the US cannot go printing dollars as of now.but US is also a great country with tremendous resources and i hope the people will wake up in time .
September 17th, 2009 at 9:27 am
We are being punished. Did you not notice?
Almost thirty years of demented "deregulation" allowed criminal scum to gut the economy with their lies, bogus loans, toxic assets, and fraudulent procedures. Once they’re crushed, controls have to be
re-instituted, and we have to start punishing people realistically, to include the death penalty, for massive business fraud.