Monday, November 24, 2008

Meltdowns and Indian Summer

The two may be related if one assumes that the economy market has had something to do with global warming: an overheated financial world of profit at any cost producing an overheated planet busily choking itself with careless consumption. Or at least until recently.

I find it ironic that once people start conserving and saving, we’re told that we can’t stop the financial bleeding unless we buy the latest gas-guzzler or LCD television because we need to create jobs. Huh? I’m curious where will these jobs be. In China? We don’t create anything much in this country anymore. Our manufacturers found it cheaper to get the stuff made abroad. Now they wonder why we don’t have the money to buy their products.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I seem to remember that not too long ago spending was supposed to be our road to prosperity: those who could (and some who couldn’t) were to spend themselves mad for the sake of the economy with no thought given to where the money was coming from, except for tapping the equity in our houses. Someone must have figured that all that capital tied up in our houses was just sitting there, not really making money except for the homeowner. How wasteful when a buck could be made. Bye bye equity.

Someone could go insane trying to figure out all the ironies and inconsistencies.

Now it is Detroit with its hand out. Sorry. I don’t feel very loyal or sympathetic. We had one of the lemons from the 1980s. Even with proper, recommended care, the US made car self-destructed at 82,000 miles. The Toyota Camry we got next chugged along uncomplaining to 208,000 miles. I can do the arithmetic. Not even patriotism or Consumer’s Reports will make me buy an American car again. Fool me one, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Besides, I have the memory of an elephant when it comes to being taken. I can’t help feeling that with further bailouts the people in power—the carpetbaggers—are taking one last dip into the national till before it snaps shut on their fingers.

But it’s not just the national players being ugly. I read in the paper today about homeowners “considering” whether to make their mortgage payments either because they owe more than the house is worth (right now) or because they think they can become eligible for a handout after ninety days of non-payment if the government relief program kicks in. Everyone wants something for nothing and as quickly as possible.

Why should I be surprised by this behavior? This is how the corporate world and the government has operated—my mother called it behaving as if there is no tomorrow.
AOL has a slide show right now on its homepage about nineteen big-time crooks (Kenneth Lay, Milliken et al) and where they are now (in jail for the most part). What an example they set.

There are times when I feel like the woolly mammoth revealed by unseasonable melting in the arctic. I’m frozen in a situation not of my making, but I’m going to be paying the price of the meltdown along with everyone else.

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