I do not understand Liberals at all. I would like to tell you all a story. My son has a piggy bank. I sure that many of us have had a bank as kids I did. The most it ever held was $4.53 all in pennies and nickels. My son is saving his money or moneys as he calls it (wow I did not know that money had a plural form) for a trip to California or a foosball table which ever comes first. It is the Christmas time and my wife and I both know that Alex want a foosball table but we are not getting him one. Why? Well because we know that he wants to save up for one. My son has currently saved $48.50 in his bank for this table. How can a 5 year do this you ask yourself? It is all my change that falls on to the floor that he picks up mostly when he is cleaning up his mess in the living room or money that he gets from family members on his birthday. I have seen the thrill and the great joy that he has in his eyes when he cashes in all those coins and gets the foldable cash. I also seen him find great pleasure in picking out the item that he really wanted and has been saving for. So why would anyone wish to rob someone of that joy? I would demean my son reward if I just went out and brought it for him.
What does this have to do with Liberals? I am getting there. Liberals, under the false idea of helping, are demeaning as all. I fully think that if you want a house that you need to save up and put a good down payment on it. By the Liberals stepping in and helping people, who can not afford to own the house they live in, to be able to afford it is not helping them but demean the dream that they had of truly owning that home. Please do not bring up the great things that Liberals have done because truly they have not done anything but made themselves look like your hero and you thank them for destroying your dreams. I read a blog by turtlesuds that tells of how she moved in with her family because she could not afford it to live on her own with a child. She could have moved into a HUD house and mooched off the government but she did not… I thank her for that.
I have heard some people explain that our system will not help people pick themselves up. I agree with them our system will not do that, it can not; you have to pick yourself up. I have worked since I was 15. I have never been handed anything but more work. When I was 19 I was working anywhere from 50 to 80 hours a week. I choose to quit that job for my current one and I have never regretted it. I have worked as an instructor, a cashier, a stocker, at a truck stop, and as a mechanic (my current job).
Why do I dislike Liberals so much? Well it is not that I dislike them it is their Idea that I dislike. I will hit on HUD for this Blog. I Lived in Omaha Nebraska my dad was in the Air Force. He got orders to move to Oklahoma. We had a House up in Nebraska that we left. HUD seized it because it was, in their minds, abandoned and for all intensive purpose it was. Well they took it and rented it out to a single woman that could not afford to live in a house. I will call her Lazy. Lazy got to live in a 3-bedroom 2-bath 2-level house with a half basement for the price of 100 dollars a month paid to my dad. HUD put in another 100 dollars. Side note if HUD had not been able to find my dad and they did not look that hard they would have been collecting Lazy money for themselves I thank my neighbor for telling my dad about HUD looking at the house. The current Price for a house like that in Omaha at that time was around 1500 dollars a month. My dad was unable to set anything like that up due to the fact that he got short notice orders and did not have time. Getting back to Lazy, she owned three big dogs. That she let destroy the house. When my dad got orders back to Omaha he informed HUD and they sent her a letter tell her that she would have to leave. Well she did not want to and so she decided to bring the hose inside and soak the house for days. The estimate damage done was around $85,600. My dad got one check from HUD in the amount of $1200. My family had to gut the house while we lived in it and rebuild it and in an act of outrage. HUD called the housing inspector and informed them that this house is being worked on and that we did not get the permission to repair a HUD house. So my dad had to fight though red tape in order to the needed repair. Then HUD, after we had gotten permission to do the repairs and making our house no longer a HUD house, called Child Services and informed them that my sibling and I were living in an unsafe home. So as you can see from a young age I grew in an environment that did not like Liberal ideas. I like to help people but I will not destroy their dreams of what they want. I want to help people do it themselves that is true help, not a handout.
HUD has changed a lot since then. Thanks to stories like my father’s and many others. I know that my dad would have been a lot happier if a family had moved into the house and not a single female. I would scream misuse of resources but like I have said HUD has made many changes. Do not write me off as someone who has had bad experience with one Liberal program. I am more then that. Truthfully take a look at some of those great Liberal programs and see if they really are helping or if they are just causing more problems, or dependence, then actual help.
“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime.” (Chinese Proverb) Show the man to the market and make him rich. (Tolkien3791)
I don't think anyone can say that HUD mishandled this situation. But I think you can argue that with better management, these ideas of assistance can spur a healthy community that works to house its poor, grow its own food and collaborate together.
Low-income housing in Missoula, Montana that has been subsidized by the city government has worked very well. The non-profit organization HomeWORD has done great work to get needy families into well designed high-density homes, equipped them with solar panels, good insulation and purchased land alongside one complex for BLOOMING community gardens. I submit that, just like so-called conservative projects, "liberal ideas" just need good people behind them. The Missoula projects are evidence that they can work and they can be supported by the local community.
my documentary...
"some folks say that a hippie won't steal,
but I caught three in my corn field"
--John Hartford
with everything except for your assumption that these kinds of imbalances are totally created by Liberalism.
Republicans and conservatives alike do the same crap. The difference is they tie it all up in a nice neat package that looks like freedom.
The financial crisis we are facing is not a result of liberal budgetting and financing. It is a result of good 'ol capitalism, a Republican value.
HUD says what it is. Loan sharks, banks, and the FHA worked cooperatively to spawn the housing and foreclosure crisis we are facing, and the people paying the price are those ever endebted to middle class that the conservative movement swears to protect.
Anyway, HUD is not the only disabled enabling agency. Medi-cal in CA, Medi-caid sponsored by the federal government, disability, workman's compensation, social security and welfare are all intrinsically flawed and are failing.
Social security is projected to run out in 5 years. Not only will you and I never see what our parents currently do in their retirement, but those indigents who are surviving off it will be cut off cold turkey. What do you think that will do to the standard of living for us Average Joe Six packs and working moms?
Our country is on the verge of a monumental shift, regardless of what your party loyalties are, and regardless of which party is in office.
The generation of your and my children is going to pay the price of the especially indulgent and ignorant generation of our parents and grandparents. It is our job to start the work of taking personal responsibility for our world, and to start to set in motion the corrective action necessary to rebuild.
That means we must first tear down that which has been established and proven in effective. It is ignorance to blame the problems on political partying, thought that is a major factor. We can't hold either side up with false glamorization. We must use the same lens of scrutiny and inspection to all agents in power. if we choose to minimize the work that must be done, we assure our children an inheritance of not only struggle and hard work, but of possible devastating times of global suffering.
"Consistency is not a human trait" - Maude, from Harold and Maude
The vast majority of the financial crisis was precipitated by the collapse of one type of asset and that was sub-prime mortgages.
The entire idea of giving loans with no money down to people who could not afford them and who could not repay them was entirely a liberal idea. It began with legislation during the Carter Administration and got much worse with legislation passed at the end of the Clinton Administration. It was the Barney Frank's and the Cris Dodd's of the world who were pushing the Fannie's to engage in these very risky behaviors.
Without the sub-prime mess we would just be having a run of the mill recession. It was not capitalism but rather liberal meddling in capitalism that created this disaster.
Stupidity knows no party line.
The banks did not have to give loans to people who couldn't afford it, they chose to. That was their own fault, just like it's the fault of the Big 3 to not changing their "if we build it, they will come" attitude. In the case of the banks, one example of what I'm talking about is National City Bank. They didn't fall for the whole sub-prime lending fad, and because of it, they've managed to make it through so far.
As for the bailout bills...well, the President is given veto power for a reason.
This mess has been the result of stupidity, bureaucracy, and the "good-ol' boys club" mentality...on both sides.
Everyone needs to stop pointing fingers and start hunkering down to make it through this and build the economy back up. The companies in trouble need to overturn their admins for competent ones if they want to stay afloat, and everyone needs to look at alternatives to the unsustainable things and ways we've grown accustomed to.
Sheesh...for a "united" country, we're awfully divided.
I am treated as evil by people who claim that they are being oppressed because they are not allowed to force me to practice what they do. ~D. Dale Gulledge
goes deeper than the subprime mortgage disaster. It started awhile back. Enron is the earliest example I remember. The trend of financial companies tweaking financial records to appear to investors to be more successful than they are is a practice performed by many agencies, including Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.
See my blog, "Where Have all the Whistleblowers Gone," http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/50272-where-have-all-whistleblowers-gon...
If you read the Time magazine article I link there, you might be as disturbed as I was to see examples that seemed to have already been dealt with. Little did we know people were continuing those same practices, and now the bailout package is supposed to fix it all. How is it going to fix anything? We have been there and done that.
The bottom line shows greed as the primary cause, not Liberalism or Conservatism. People in both parties are guilty. America as a whole is guilty for playing into blind optimistic ignorance.
"Consistency is not a human trait" - Maude, from Harold and Maude
I agree with you Both parties in Washington have done many wrongs. Many companies are being greedy. I believe that we should let these companies fail. Let their competitors buy them up for pennies on the dollar. I really believe that would help. Wellsfargo and Citie group as wells as Bank of America are buying up other banks like kids at a candy store with a twenty dollar bill. This three banks took major hits because they did not offer the sub prime loans that these other banks did. UAW is pulling the big three down like a boulder tied to their legs. Let them fail let someone else come in and do what is right.
"Something given has no value"~Robert Heinlein
"Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is." Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richards Almanack, 1749
Congress should be thinking about financing a massive investigation and prosecution of all who have participated in illegal financial activities, frauds, or false reporting. They should weed out every bad seed and all who sat by, watched and did nothing.
That would make a great big statement that this kind of behavior will not be tolerated, and it would do a lot more to ensure that any up and coming personality or organization will play by the rules.
The message we are sending instead is that we will make it float no matter what the cost, so go ahead and keep doing what you always do.
So what if the banks crash? I would rather live in reality than on credit and monopoly money thrown at me by a corrupt government.
"Consistency is not a human trait" - Maude, from Harold and Maude
Well it will not happen. Congress will not do it. Do to the fact that many of them have accepted money in large amount from some of the most corrupt companies.
It would send a big statement to many companies if they force them to do what is right to bad it is called a directorship or communism. you can only cook the books for so long before you start running into problems. We need to fix the IRS they are supposed to be watching this companies making sure that they are not spiting out lies.
I agree we should just let the banks crash it will hurt for a moment but then it would be alright. As I state in the early comment many large bank are in great shape. Let them do what they do and keep the government interference to a minimum. Keep a close watch for monopolies from forming but other then that government has no business in business.
"Something given has no value"~Robert Heinlein
"Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is." Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richards Almanack, 1749
I think that Capitalisms has not fail us it was the government, mainly Liberals but not solely, messing with the system that has screwed it up. I believe in the principles of conservatism not the party lines. I believe that we need to be fiscally responsible (both in government and our own personal lives), limited government, and lower taxes to name a few. The principals are still sound as they were when they first came out. I will stand by them because they have worked and will continue to work in the future. We can not throw money at a problem and hope that it goes away. We can expect the government to come to our rescue every time when have a problem in our lives. I thank you for agreeing with me.
"Something given has no value"~Robert Heinlein
"Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is." Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richards Almanack, 1749
the reason for choosing to live with family rather than continuing to rent an apartment. This decision was based not so much on financial need, though that is a factor, but on my husband's and my decision that having our child raised by strangers was not an option for us.
We had a good life before I got pregnant. We lived together, and both worked. I was in nursing school when we met, graduated, and then he was in nursing school. We enjoyed our humble home. We both worked full time.
Once we found out I was pregnant, and that our baby was probably going to be physically deformed and disabled, my husband had a hard time focusing on nursing school. Nursing school requires 100% commitment and does not leave room for life changing events. He could have stuck it out, but he would have been physically, mentally and emotionally unavailable to me until after she was born.
It was his decision to quit. I did not pressure him either way. I was leaning toward him actually finishing the semester. It was his second semester and he was 3 weeks away from the end with a solid A in the class. I pointed out to him that at least if he finished the semester he could come back in half way at any time, but if he quit, he was throwing away 13 weeks of hard work. He made his own decision based on his priorities.
We could have continued our way of life, with two incomes and him working toward a higher education and more money, but that would have meant putting my baby in full time daycare starting at 3 months. I could not do this, and neither could my husband. I was making more money as an RN than he was as a LPT, so we decided I would work full time and he would work part time on weekends when I was home.
In order to afford a stay at home parent in lieu of a second income, we moved in with family and my husband was stay at home daddy. Now that she goes to school and loves it, he is working full time again.
Hopefully we will be able to pay off my student loans and debt and save up for a house while continuing to enjoy the benefits of low cost housing and sometimes at home babysitters for another year. That is if my parents' ignorant old school ways don't drive us out sooner.
"Consistency is not a human trait" - Maude, from Harold and Maude
I will thank you again. In my opinion there is nothing wrong with being a stay at home parent. My wife kinda does it still but she is in school to become a nurse so we have our youngest in daycare part time a few days a week.
"Something given has no value"~Robert Heinlein
"Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is." Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richards Almanack, 1749