If It Looks Like a Bailout, and Walks Like a Bailout, Just Because You Put Lipstick on it, Don’t Make it a Pig.

Ok, I’ve been looking at what all of us have been looking at and I’m none to happy about what I’ve been seeing.  Now, to both John McCain’s and Barack Obama’s credit, neither want to see the country go though Financial Armageddon, (and that’s what WE have been told repeatedly by several officials)…however, I have my doubts about us providing the needed capital for the financial system to be stabilized. 

Let’s look at the Worst Case Scenario:

• Markets freeze and NO ONE is able to get credit…period!
  
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Above isn’t a typo… That’s pretty much all I keep hearing.  And that would be bad but…uh…I’ve got like a double digit Beacon Score…so I KNOW living with no credit is possible and not the end of the world.  I DO have to budget and manage my limited money very stringently…which is what we would like our government to do, right?

Once Upon A Time…

I remember having to walk a mile to the bus stop carrying my trumpet and catching the bus every morning in the summers to go to band camp.  After spending my high school years catching buses and bumming rides, it was finally my time to become the owner of my own vehicle.  I remember working at a grocery store and saving every penny until I got like $1,000.  I went to a car auction and I bought a 1980 Honda Prelude…cash.  No car note and no “new car smell”.  This used to be how it went. You SAVED UP to buy what you wanted.  Or, there was lay-a-way…remember that?  Now every store just gives you a credit card and tells you to get it now.  Going into debt has become the “American” way.

So…What are they REALLY scared of?:

Bankruptcy.  Why?  When companies go bankrupt, they sell their assets and get what they can for them.  Our government would rather go into debt with China (which they can choose to re-nig on if need be) then to have China or whatever country that’s currently in the “black” bid for our financial institutions on eBay.

Not being able to continue “life as we know it”.

If the financial system fails to be able to function as it currently does, many tough questions have to be asked and answered.  Questions like, “What ever happened to lay-a-way?”  or “how long will I have to save up before I can buy that?”

I remember when I was a kid, after my mom and dad divorced; my Grandma was able to go to the deep freezer out back and was always able to pull out some “deer meat” or “bass” that my Granddad had hunted earlier that year.  We always had food.  In the backyard, we had pecan trees, pear trees, apple trees, pepper plants, tomato vines, muscadine vines, and fishing bait.  All around the house were not only rose bushes but cabbages and greens too.  My grandparents aren’t rich and didn't use "credit cards" to feed us but when my mom and her four kids had to move back in with them, we all were fed and never did without...what we REALLY needed.  I’ve got one kid and a side by side in the kitchen and I’m looking at CNN everyday and am scared to death… or am I?

There is Nothing to Fear but Fear Itself.

I’ve decided that even if we are about to go through The Great Depression 2.0, I say bring it on!  Everything that doesn’t kill us makes us stronger right?  I say take that $700 billion and pay America's house deeds and had them to us...the tax payers.  That way, if my 401(k) is gone, I'm not still paying a house note.  Hell, while ya'll at it, pay off my student loans too!  Bail "me" out!  

Lead by Example...

I bought a car a couple of years ago and I chose to get a Honda Fit because, at the time, it was one of the most fuel efficient, affordable hatchbacks that wasn’t a hybrid.  That’s what we as Americans have to do… make some difficult choices.  I wanted Hummer just as much as the next guy.  I made a choice based on what I thought I’d be able to afford in the long run.  We might NOT need to purchase a house that is 10 times larger than that of our parents?  I say, let’s take a note from Alaska’s governor and learn to “live off the land” again, fill our deep freezers with as much fresh game as we can and make due.  We’ll all come out better for it in the long run.

**Disclaimer** 

 I'm not an "Economist" nor do I play one on TV, so, uh, to congress and other federal workers and Washington insiders, if you guys read this and know that Financial Armageddon would rain down upon us with a great fury and vengeance not know since the beginning of time... Ix-nay on this Og-blay! lol!