2008-09-28 - 11:10 p.m.
As I was saying

During the Presidential debate on Friday, both candidates kept talking about �Main Street� (versus �Wall Street�) and the middle class. They pontificated at mandated equal lengths about how the current �financial crisis� threatens the middle class and how the government should best intervene, for it must, in the situation in order to correct it.

Now, neither of these guys are citizens of Main nor have they been members of the middle class for years. Obama pulled in almost one million dollars in 2006, and McCain made nearly four. But I find it extremely touching that they�re so concerned with �our� plight.

Except for one little fact: we�re not really involved in any kind of plight.

I don�t know most of the people in the United States, so I will admit at the onset that I could be na�ve. However, it�s my belief that the financial situation of right now is, at most, inconveniencing the middle class. It�s causing us to cut back a bit and be cheesed off that our 401(k)s aren�t performing well. But no one I know has lost a house, or even a car, or has had to sign up for public assistance or stop using electricity or anything.

I think that the people really affected and even devastated by the downturn in the economy (largely heralded and then, in my humble opinion, shoved down the hill to snowball by the media) are the poor. The poor ARE having to choose between gas to drive their beater to work or buying fresh produce. The poor are having to make do with fans or hosing down to keep cool.

These are the people who are truly suffering, and the bail-out isn�t going to help them because most of them probably don�t even own homes or have insurance. These people won�t benefit from tax cuts or rebates, because they might not have made enough money to owe taxes, or have filed their returns if they did.

Now, there is one segment of the population whose lives might change drastically if there is no federal intervention into the economic house of cards which is teetering today: the wanna-be richies. These people might be middle class, but they wanted to live upper middle class lives.

I have no doubt that some people have been genuinely duped by shady companies, and if anyone is on the receiving end of fraudulent practices, there should be some recourse for them. However, if someone was just so flattered that their loan officer told them they could afford a $300k house on a $45k annual salary, then, I�m sorry, but maybe learning a lesson the hard way is an appropriate reality check. The same thing for the mortgagee who got an interest-only loan or adjustable rate mortgage on the �promise� that the housing market would keep skyrocketing and a refinance down the road would be a shoo-in.

Right now, yes, I�d be more pleased if our bank account was growing instead of shrinking. Who wouldn�t? But I don�t consider having to drain from savings or curtail driving because it�s gotten too expensive to be a �crisis.� It�s an inconvenience. So what? We�re not whiny little babies, are we? Oh, wait. Yeah, we are.

We see other people taking cruises and we want to take a cruise, so we charge it and figure we can pay for it later. We really want that nice car, so we take out a five-year loan on it, and each year still owe more on it that it�s worth. We have to have new clothes for that new job, so we buy a whole wardrobe (donating the old stuff to charity, just so we�ll feel better) and justify the expense on the new higher income. Everyone in the family needs a cell phone, a gaming system, a portable gaming system, a television, an iPod, his or her own credit cards, lessons, classes, vehicles, etc.

So, while I know it�s probable that �the system� at large is broken and needs to be fixed, throwing money at bad mortgages and companies isn�t anything but an expensive bandage that�s going to do more hurt coming off than it helps when it�s being administered. We will continue to be greedy, selfish, impatient malcontents. We�ve come such a long way in a generation. We�ve come from: �My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you� to �how are those idiots in Washington going to make me more comfortable?�

If the country at large were in famine, or if the plague were spreading and we were too poverty-stricken to fight it, or something of that scale then, yes, I�d call it a crisis. But having to cut back on Red Bull or eating at the Olive Garden or driving closer in toward Dallas to shop at that specialty grocer� that�s character-building.

Those of us who have it good (and everyone reading this does) should help those affected by the higher energy costs and subsequent higher everything costs. But if the nation�s capital wants to throw $700 billion at several select companies in order to �stabilize� the market, don�t pin that one on the middle class. It�s not going to help most of us, and ALL of us are going to have to pay for it to the tune of $2000 per American. And Daphne isn�t even old enough to vote yet!

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