Stepping Up to the Plate

I've been blogging along making political commentary for some time now, regarding this financial fiasco, but today, I'm going to tell it like it is, at least from my perspective. The problem is not all on Wall Street, therefore the bailout, will not help. The solution certainly isn't in Washington. We can see from Monday and Tuesdays stock drop and stock rally, that even with the bailout, they plan to run on credit, the direction will not change. I've spent my entire life listening to people talk about money and hard times and a couple of weeks ago I went to my Grandma's 90th birthday celebration and got a whole new perspective, just in time for Wall Street's Meltdown. I say "meltdown, shmeltdown!" Now, knowing that our fearless, thoughtless leaders are going to put this burden on the taxpayers if they can, I say it's really just a matter of which generation of taxpayers is stuck. My recommendation is this one! Somebody has to stop this insanity. Some generation has to just step up to the plate, suck it up and pay the piper, and I'm okay with it being mine. I'm 50 and I'd rather start over and live simply than prop up Wall Street and keep America's god on life support. It's time to lay the old idol to rest, once and for all. We've been running a long time on this present method, which amounts to little more than fast credit, payday loans for the majority of us. Taking down the mobsters in the 70's and 80's was the only way the government could tax the loansharking with those little "corner check-cashing" shops. This is what happens when an economy is based on the perpetual motion of credit. It's far worse than counting your chickens before the eggs are hatched. It's more like ordering omelettes and quiche before the eggs are laid. Now back to my thoughts. I grew up hearing how much everything cost! I mean everything! My parents were very money conscious and from appearance and knowing my dad, I'd say they are comfortable and debt free, and were that way long before they retired, and they still are not 70, so I think their money concerns have served them well. I remember when my Grandpa, who was a self accomplished man, also, explained to me about CDs and FDIC. He told me to never have more than 10 CDs in one bank, and never mature at the same date. And I still live by that advice, only now as an adult I understand those CDs must have been $10,000.00 each. He's gone now, he's been gone for most of my adult life and I still miss him terribly. I think my parents are set for their old age, which brings me to the real point. I have a grandma and I have grandchildren. My grandma has spent her entire life doing what she wanted or what she thought was best. She's 90 now and I think she's covered for life. In celebrating her birthday and looking at the scrap books some of my cousins had assembled I had a revelation! As you can probably glean from this blog, our family has close generations. I remember well, my Grandma's parents, my great Grandparents. As I looked through the scrap book and saw the pictures from days gone by, I remembered the story of my great Grandparents losing their farm in the Great Depression and building a house on a smaller acreage up the road that my Grandpa had inherited. I heard how they lived in the chicken house while he built the home I remember visiting as a child, years later. What caught me odd, though, was the number of professional pictures my Grandma had taken of herself through the 30's, already a young adult. I was amazed at the outfits and the, well, they looked like glamour shots. There were a number of them, a significant number. I know it was all through the 30's, as she married my Grandpa in 1940 and my mom came along in 41. She was a waitress in town in 1934 or 35 and when social security was first established, most of her income would have been unaffected. And from the pictures, I would say the hardships I heard about through the Great Depression appeared to leave those young adults unaffected, as well. Maybe she went to the big city in hopes of being discovered . . . I have no idea.
I made the decision years ago, to pay in to cover my generational obligation, but not to collect social security, because I didn't intend to retire, and I refused to apply for disability when I was diagnosed with MS, so I'm at peace with no expectations or entitlements from the government. I'm also at peace with knowing the young adult generation of the Great Depression that left the farm and didn't look back are taken care of, and their children that worked so hard to amass, probably won't lose most of their pensions, etc. So while the older ones are cared for and the younger ones are just beginning, I say, we'll still take care of the rebels of the Great Depression and the anti-establishment generation will put the brakes on and get this thing turned around without leaving the same burden we inherited.
In those days they shall say no more, The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on edge. a Prophet of Holy Scripture