A friend here, seminarian wife and mother of two, also CPA had this to say on the recent events on our financial crisis:
"Thoughts on the proposed gov't bailout and the "financial crisis"
"Can we Americans learn to bear the consequences of
our poor decisions? Everyone should have to take an introductory finance class
in school, I think, where they would learn that debt is not inherently evil, but
too much leveraging results in an inability to meet present cash commitments,
let alone future commitments (the commitments to repay all that debt some day)!
Why can't we - and by "we" I mean businesses as well as individuals - be more
temperate and honest in our consumption? Is it right that we (meaning
individuals) should live beyond our means, and businesses should grow beyond
their means, and then expect the government to make our debts disappear when the
debtload threatens to bury us? The government is in debt too - up to its
eyeballs! America - its people, businesses, and government - has been hurtling
toward financial crisis for some time. It has been only a question of when that
crisis would hit.It seems to me that we should not, and possibly cannot, be
"bailed out." (Even if it were a morally acceptable idea, it probably would not
work - the government tried to bail out businesses and individuals during the
Great Depression, and its efforts largely failed.) What we need is a new moral
paradigm, one that is sustainable. We all should become "conservatives,"
conserving all that is wholesome and good and truly fulfilling. Getting rich and
consuming everything in sight is not fulfilling - it is numbing at best, masking
our deeper discontents. And we should not only conserve for the sake of the
economy or for the environment or for our children's quality of life, but
conserve because we understand that modesty, charity, and moderation are truly
sustainable moral attributes, while self-gratification and pride are not. The
crisis is not in the markets - it is in our hearts.I am not sure why I felt I
needed to post these comments. I cannot even say for sure that I am right.
Tonight I just feel frustrated with our tendency to focus so closely on
temporary crises (this too shall pass) while all the while we are neglecting the
crisis of losing our humanity. But maybe I should stop writing and focus on my
own crises. Lord have mercy. "
3 comments:
The recent bailout has been the subject of much discussion in our home as we watch everyone around us crumble financially.
There is definitely one point that came out at me, in the religious sense - We should not live beyond our means. That's exactly how people and companies drown in debt - they are living a lie and living beyond their means. It destroys your credit, your finances, your self-esteem, your relationships...your life!
I do think there is a severe lack of personal responsibility in our country. Hardly anyone wants to be an adult, and that saddens me, because it hurts society as a whole and the individuals closest to them.
A note on the Great Depression: it was explained to me that the market crash would've been more temporary if the government had just left it alone and not attempted to do anything.
...and here we are where the President signed this proposed "bailout" to only repeat failed history as the market falls, falls, falls yet not slowly but rapidly -- Lord! Have mercy!
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