The Plight Of Mr. X

Mr. X walks into a bank to ask for a home loan. Even though he asks for a loan waaaaaaay beyond his means, the bank gladly obliges.

"What's that Mr. X? You want a half million dollar home loan, even though you only make $30,000 a year? Not a problem......just sign on the dotted line. In blood."

"What was that?!?"

"Bud, I said bud. Just sign on the dotted line.....bud."

Down the road, Mr. X can no longer afford the payments and he has to forclose on his home. Banks lose money......enter crisis.

I know already that I do not know all the facts about the economic crisis we're in right now, so you can correct me or yell at me for being naive. But, I do know that a big part of it is the stupidity of people trying to live beyond their means combined with the stupidity of the banks who allow them to do this.

Now, on to what this blog is all about. As we all know, the government bailed out all these banks that were in trouble by giving them 700 BILLION dollars. I already have problems with that, but the problem at hand is that of AIG. Now, AIG is one of these banks that was involved in this bail out. What did they do? They threw a party this past Tuesday that cost them 400,000......FOUR HUNDRED THOUSAND......dollars. I know this is just a small portion of the big picture, but really? That 400,000 dollars could have gone to help out a lot of people.

This is kind of like giving a ton of money to some homeless guy to get a motel room, get cleaned up, and find a job. Instead, he takes that money and buys some booze and a night in a motel room with Buck-tooth Mary, the local prostitute. (At least he did get the motel room) Then the guy ends up back on the street. (This whole thing is probably closer to the truth than I think, cause with rich, smarmy bankers, there probably were lots of boobs and booze involved in this party)

The big difference between the bankers and the bum? The bankers spend the money and somehow are still okay, while Mr. X is the one who ends up on the street because he still can't afford to pay off his mortgage.

Why couldn't us little people have gotten some of that money? Sure, there are stupid people that would still use it for all the wrong reasons. But, some of us who are smart enough to not live beyond our means could have used it to pay off the little bit of debt we do have.

If I have all of this completely wrong, feel free to tell me. I admittedly don't know much about politics and the economy, so I'd love for someone to explain this all to me in a way that makes sense.

Until then, dream big.....(but not too big).

and for the rich.....until next time, party like it's 1999!

K