Posted: 1/17/2009 6:42:02 AM EDT
|
Our economic system is corrupt and broken.
The country's financial leaders are watching the problem, and have decided that the banks and economic powerhouse companies that created this mess need more money in order to fix the problem - billions of dollars more. The billions of dollars is one big part of the problem. Due to the way in which we have structured government spending, the United States has no cash reserve. We're the world's largest deficit spenders - spending money we don't have and likely will never have. In order to get these companies and banks their billions, the government will have to "create" new money. They squandered the billions they had, and now we are going to create more billions to give them so they can continue to operate. It seems the government and financial leaders are focused on preserving the system, treating the symptoms, and ignoring the root of the problem. Unless the root of the problem is treated, the problem will persist, and all the billions we can print will not be enough to get the country back on track. What is the root of the problem? The problem is as old as mankind itself: Greed. Now before you write me off as preaching, allow me to explain. Presumably, if you are like the majority of Americans, you have a job. You are paid for your time, as much as your employers thinks your time is worth. That may not be what you think your time is worth, but you are free to seek employment elsewhere if you do not like it. So, you have received money for your time. Money that, in general, the world considers your time to be worth. The money is yours. You worked for it, and worked hard. So now you have money, which you have exchanged some of your valuable time for. It represents your value. What do you do with it? Well, you arrange a place to live. You need shelter. You buy food and water. You have to eat and drink to live. You buy other items you feel you need. A car to get to work. A TV. Tupperware. The money is yours to do with what you please. Some people are not happy with the amount of money they have though. They want more. How do you get more? Well, you could work harder, improve your education, or maybe get a second job. All of those options would involve you working harder for more money, but they will get you more money. But if you feel you are worth more than the money you have, working harder probably does not sound like a good option. There has to be a way to make your money into something more. You are worth more, you deserve more, right? So what do you do? Here's an idea: invest your money in the stock market. Your money - what the world values you as - can be increased just by putting it into the stock market. You can be more than what the world values you as. Everyone else is doing it. Why not? Now, what is the stock market? Generally speaking, it's a place where stocks (ownership shares) of participating companies are valued and traded. If enough traders consider a company to be good, its stock value will go up. If they decide they are no good, its stock value will drop. Put your money on a "good" company, and you'll get a good return - more money. Pick a looser, and you loose money. In general terms, it is legalized gambling. You're wagering a company will do better. Everyone else is wagering their stocks will do better too. Let's review where we are now. You have gone to work and been paid a fair wage for your time. You have looked at your money and decided you are worth more than what the world has paid you. So you have invested your money in the stock market in order to make more money with no actual work on your part. The stock market has depreciated, the system is failing, and you have lost money. You are now worth less than what the world initially valued you at. How did you get to this position? Greed. Greed got you into this mess. If you had been happy with your fair wage for your time, and sat on the money, you would still have it. But you wanted more - you deserve more, right? So you gambled with your money and lost. Just about everyone who participated has lost money now. Where did that money go? "Who won?" might be a better question. Who made money? Think about that. Now, consider who is being helped in this crisis. The large financial institutions who created and regulate the system. The very people and institutions, millionaires or better all of them, whose actions created this crisis. They depend on cash flowing, and they have tapped out the Average Joe who was just greedy enough to risk his money in the stock market and listened to everyone telling them there was easy money to be made. All you have to do is put your money into the system. Everyone else is doing it. You want to have money to retire one day, right? Now the system needs more money to survive. So where will it get more money? Ultimately, from the tax payers - you and me - risk takers and non-risk takers alike. The money all the participants have pumped into the markets is not enough. Sound good? This financial system, which depends upon greed to operate, is getting billions of dollars to save it, after it squandered billions of dollars getting us into this mess. Feeding the greed will fix the problem? It is reminiscent of a junkie - they have to get their fix or they'll go into withdrawal. Good money after bad. It has to stop. The root of the problem has to be cut or it will continue to grow - to produce more "crises", because greed knows no bounds, and no amount of money will ever be enough. The question is, how to you cure greed? Just like treating a heroin addict, the junkie has to acknowledge a problem exists first. It will be hard to cure in most people unless they are very open and honest with themselves. You have to learn to accept what you are worth have earned. You are not worth more than what the world values you at. You do not deserve more money simply because you have earned some money. If you want more, earn more. Do not look for a free reward simply because you feel you deserve more and "everyone else is doing it". Our own greed has created this problem, and only a change in our fundamental attitude will stop it. I have no doubt that many of you have read this and already decided how wrong I am, picking out flaws in the ideas I have presented, and generally writing me off as some kind of nutjob. This is America, and we are entitled to do what we want with our money, right? Look where it's gotten us. Those who detract from these concepts - you are the ones most firmly entrenched in this system, and likely with the most inflated egos and sense of self worth. You must realize that you do not deserve more than you earn. Our entitlement attitude is what got us into this mess, and that attitude has to change if we're going to get our economy back on track. So what will it be? Continue pumping money into a system that has consumed untold billions, or cut the supply and weather the painful withdrawal? We need to get healthy, or the addiction will eventually take us all. Strike the root. |
|
Well, I don't think greed is the problem. Excessive Greed, with no responsibly is the problem.
Greed is what lowers prices (trying to get all the business from the competition), good old healthy greed is what drives the capitalist engine. We work hard and invest for greed (small g). Greed (with a capital G), is envy of what others have and are too lazy and irresponsible to obtain it through hard work and saving. The latter is what broke the system (and of course the government has to be involved, because the free market self-corrects, only the government can get it wacked out with no hope of recovery). Also, you cannot legislate a change in attitude away from Greed, you can only punish behavior you do not want, and reward the behavior you want. Right now we do the opposite. Our tax laws punish those that make the right choices in life and earn more and save more, while rewarding those that make poor choices and do less well. You invest in the behavior you want, and we are reaping what we have sown. |