Tuesday, May 05, 2009

Can We Just Stop Blaming the Poor Folks for Our Crappy Economy PLEASE?

I am sick of seeing/hearing people explain that the cause of our crappy economy is/are the sub-prime mortgage defaults. This seems to place the onus for the mess that is upon us on the poor in the US.

Think about how stupid that is.

Let's blame the poor for our bad economy.

Right, that's logical... or it would be, if we lived on Bizarro World. How is it that people with little money can mess things up for those with lots?

First, you have to admit that the defaulted sub-prime loans were just a single factor (of many) in all of this. Then, you have to ask a very important question.

Recently, I came across yet another person on a socnet laying blame for our economic crisis at the feet of people unable to pay off their mortgages. The following is what I posted in response--it includes that very important question:

I think the bigger problem is why soooo many people couldn't keep up with their mortgage payments. If so very many people defaulted that it caused this massive failure of our economy, it seems more important to me that we ask why so many people couldn't pay their loan payments. Surely, they can't ALL be "lazy" or whatever.

I'd much rather solve the problem of so many people unable to make enough money to live comfortably, pay their bills and stay healthy.


However, in typical ThePete-fashion, I've a bit more to say. So here's that:

So, if they weren't all deadbeats, why couldn't they pay their mortgages? Because they hadn't seen a raise or a promotion in their jobs in a while? They lost their job because of downsizing, outsourcing or a personal medical issue? How much of those reasons are economically related?

How many of those reasons are related to the business' well-being put in front of the employee's well-being? To me this always comes back to all of us putting the right of a company to survive above the right of an individual to have a job that allows them to play their part in society.

And which would you rather do?

1) Prop up a faulty system, allowing the people and structures that failed once an opportunity to fail again

2) Let businesses fail, sending everyone, business owners and employees alike, a massive wake-up call that they can't just assume everything will just work the way it should without folks paying attention and thinking for themselves

I know I've loaded those options a bit, but it strikes me as odd that we should save the employees by saving the bosses who got greedy and were the largest catalyst of all this in the first place.


And on top of that, you've got to wonder about a system that is so unstable that, when one thing goes wrong, it falls to pieces.

No, to me there's something very very basic about our economic that is overflowing with wrongability.

Orignal From: Can We Just Stop Blaming the Poor Folks for Our Crappy Economy PLEASE?

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