So.... Where are all the Fiscal Conservatives?

As I watch as the United States financial system decays into something resembling a modern day great depression, I have to wonder loudly to myself... "Where are all the fiscal conservatives?" Now, let me preface this post by saying that I am by no means an economics expert, nor do I have any formal training in creating, maintaining or saving capitalist markets. However, what I do have is a keen sense of right and wrong, principles that do not waiver in the face of adversity, and a rudimentary understanding of human tendencies.

Ok, disclaimer out of the way.

I wonder from time to time if this is what adult life is all about; watching the people around you and society at large make decisions that you disagree with and trying to come up with some way for you to personally cope with the consequences of those decisions.

I think most Americans have a vague understanding of the plight of the financial situation of this country right now, but for historical value (and perspective resolution) I will lay out what I have noticed in the past few weeks.

Ok, first there was Bear-Stearns, which was ready to fold earlier this year before the government bailed them out, then allowed Chase to buy up the dirt cheap stock and absorb the remainder of their company; leaving the taxpayer responsible for the mismanagement and benefitting Chase with a cheap aquisition.

Then it was quiet before the shitstorm hit.

For several months we didn't hear too too much, but in August, it all hit the fan. Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac (whom I believe were somehow affiliated with the government to begin with), appeared to be in big trouble. To my understanding, the government absorbed 80% of the companies in exchange for a loan from the federal government in the value of billions. Then there was Lieman brothers, Meryl Lynch, then AIG, then etc...

My problem with all of this is multi-faceted.

First of all, I have a problem that we are here to begin with. All of this was set into motion by coporate greed, government ambivilence (and accomplice), and finally population gullibility and greed. Back in 2001, GW Bush and his accomplices in Congress removed all of the protections against this exact circumstance happening. Laws and regulations that have been on the books since the great depression regarding lending and the housing market were repealed en masse. Now, although I do believe that there are sinister motivations within our own government, I don't think that the desire of doing any of this was to create our current situation, but I do believe that it was all of greed and cronyism, which is just as bad.

Second of all, I have a problem with how we are progressing through all of this. And it doesn't just apply to this, but to a lot of challenges we are currently facing. The world is on notice... The United States of America is willing to mortgage it's values if times are tough. We are weak, we are pathetic and it doesn't take much to make us weak and pathetic. If you would have asked any capitalist a year ago if we should be providing welfare to people (or companies) that are not doing well, they would have thought you were ridiculous. We are making it policy to take taxpayer money from individuals and give them to companies. To make matters worse, we get absolutely no return on our investment, because that money is just gone. We pay for their mistakes, but they get to keep their profits when they make it.... what gives?

As I mentioned before though, this isn't the only thing that Americans are willing to mortgage their souls over. Since September 11th, I have heard an alarming number of people cry for genocide, nuclear war, torture, and illegal detainment. This is America, we do not kill people indiscriminately. We are better than that. We are not Germany, we are not China, we are not Russia, and we are not Sudan. We are supposed to respect individual sovereignty as well as national sovereignty. I guess when your president doesn't know what the word sovereignty means, this is the result you get. Honestly, I don't think he has a grade-school level understanding of the document we call the constitution that he shits on regularly, so I guess he shares that with most Americans. We need to decide what we believe in America, because right now it doesn't look like much... besides an invisible man in the sky and our government of course.

Finally, I feel that due to the complex nature of all of this, the American people are being bilked out of their hard-earned money by big corporations and their own government simply because those entities know that people are either too stupid or too lazy to figure out exactly how they are getting fucked.

I believe in the Bill of Rights. I believe in rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (no matter how you find that happiness, as long as your happiness doesn't reasonably infringe on anyone else's happiness). I believe in the good of the American people, because no matter how ignorant or stupid we may be regarding the world around us, we are generally good, hard-working and friendly people that all deserve respect and individual sovereignty. I believe in an unobtrusive government which does not play favorites and maintains consistancy in policy. (If you are going to have a welfare society where you are bailing out Fanny Mae and Freddie Mac, you also have to bail out Lieman brothers, the small business owner that took a risk and failed, and even the single mother that is about to lose her house because she lost her job).

I'm not asking for much, just a little consistancy. The double-standards are enough to make you throw up.

What I CAN tell you for 100% sure is that there are going to be a lot of people that lose a lot of money in all of this, but the overwhelming majority of them are not going to the be the fabled upper 1%... they're going to be people like you and I. We are going to pay for their mistakes. There other thing I can tell you is that there are going to be some people that MAKE a lot of money off of this.. .and they will be the 1%ers.

A redistribution of wealth... reverse communism if you will. Reverse communism doesn't sound menacing enough though.... how about "Fuck you, you insignificant little American citizen -Love, Your Government"