I can afford the payment. I responsibly only borrowed what I could truly afford. I’ve stayed debt free with no credit card debt, car loans or anything other than a mortgage. I save and invest regularly. I’m pretty much doing all I can to be a financially responsible citizen. Unfortunately our society doesn’t seem to reward good behavior.
In my daughter’s kindergarten class there are kids that pay attention, do their homework, and generally do what they’re told. The reward for being a good student is extra privileges. The kids in the class who act out, don’t pay attention and are hard to keep control over don’t often receive rewards for their behavior. In fact they never do. It seems that our school system believes that rewarding good behavior is a positive reinforcement method to teach good behavioral skills.
I guess this kind of positive reinforcement only works on young children because we certainly don’t seem to be using anything of the sort on all the people that have irresponsibly run up their credit card bills and bought homes that they can’t afford. The remedy for those people is to spend MY tax dollars to adjust the terms on their debt. So, the lesson I’m apt to take away from this current economic crisis is if enough people are living beyond their means and spending more than they can afford to, then I might as well do it too. On the plus side, I’ll get to live far more extravagantly than my old self would have and if things get too bad, someone else will pick up the tab. So far I haven’t seen any drawbacks to taking this approach.
I’m extremely torn on what type of bailout/economic stimulus is needed for our country. It absolutely kills me that people who haven’t planned and have been irresponsible with their lives are now my problem. Sure, there are some people that are being impacted through this that truly did try to do the right things. The problem is that it’s a small percentage of the people that are standing in line asking for help.
I’m trying really hard not to be a whiner/complainer about all of this stuff but it really does kick me in the ass that we are deepening our national debt by trillions of dollars.
What do you think? Should we just let the economy reset on it’s own, or should we use trillions of dollars to try to basically manipulate reality?
So, as much as I’d like to live beyond my means and hope for a bailout some day, I won’t. I won’t because it’s not the right thing to do. I won’t because I pride myself on being financially independent. I won’t because it’s against everything I’ve ever believed was right. I’ll just sit back, keep saving, and hope that someday society will recognize the fiscally responsible people in our midst.
won’t be rooms to clean, food to serve, maintenance to perform, security to manage and Craps tables to watch. It is with this concern that I have decided it is time to help.