Bailout, Revisited

OK, I've cooled off. Kind of.

So the Bailout post was clearly written in an irate moment. Do I really believe we should "let Rome burn?" *sigh* No. Obviously we can't do that.

It's kind of like when your stupid co-worker bungles a big assignment and leaves you holding the bag. You come home, and fantasize about all the things you could do to get back at them, all the things you'd really like to do to see them really get whacked for screwing you over like this. And then, you wake up the next morning, go to the office, take a deep breath, and try and fix things.

And that's where we are now. We've got to fix this thing. I don't know how, but I've been convinced by listening to enough people who know a lot more about economics than I ever will that some form of the bailout has to happen, or we will be in really, really bad shape.

So go fix it. Take my money. Give it to the irresponsible people who took on credit they couldn't afford, and to the greedy banks that bought those worthless loans. Clean up this mess. And then I'll start rebuilding my savings. And when you people screw up yet again, I'll still be here and you can come back for more. And you will -- mark my words. When you reward irresponsibility, you just ensure it will happen again.

*sigh*

Bailout

OK, I like to keep this blog lighthearted. But I'm just really really angry right now. So here's a warning:

If you don't like angry sanctimonious rants, leave now.
If you don't like potty words, leave now.
If you're just looking for cute pictures of the kids, leave now.

You're still here? OK, well, you've been warned.

So I'm really, really getting pissed about this whole financial bailout thing. I keep hearing "It's not just one thing that went wrong, there's plenty of blame to go around."

Well, you know what? That's bullshit. The blame doesn't go all around, and it certainly doesn't come here.

I didn't buy a house I couldn't afford.
I didn't take on revolving credit.
I didn't take out equity from my house for luxuries.
I didn't make stupid leveraged investments in narrow high-risk sectors to squeeze out an extra 3% in return.

People tease me about being cheap. Hell, I tease me about being cheap. But you know what being cheap has done? It's made it so that we can make our mortgage payments -- on both houses, including the one we can't sell because the housing market is so fucked up. It's made it so that we can pay the credit card bills IN FULL every month, so that we don't get deep into debt. It's made it so that we can save some for retirement, so that we won't have to live off our children when we get old -- I hope. And it's made it so that on top of all that we can save a little bit for college for the girls.

So what have we given up? Vacations, for one -- haven't been on one in years. I'd like to -- it would be nice to finally have a honeymoon, but not when we've got these expenses. Stuff, for another. The last time I bought a "toy" was in 2005, when I bought the HDTV. We don't have iPods, or fancy cellphones. We haven't decorated the house -- the appliances are old, the wallpaper's peeling, but everything is functional. The cars are beat up, but they run. There's no need to fix the cosmetic stuff. And there's no need to buy a flashy new car. I take my lunch to work, or just skip lunch. We buy generic. I pick up pennies I see on the sidewalk. What we can't afford, we do without.

Do I like it like this? Honestly, does it matter whether or not I like it? The important thing is that we live within our means. Thankfully, I've got a wife who fully agrees with this approach.

And because of all this, we've saved, we're not in debt, and we're not being foreclosed upon. Our reward? Bailing out the rest of the stupid motherfuckers in this country who didn't manage their finances responsibly.

Yeah you know what? I don't care that the banker told you you could refinance down the road. Buying more house than you can afford is stupid and reckless. Not knowing what you can afford is stupid and reckless.

I don't care that the credit card offered you a low interest rate. Taking on credit to pay for toys is stupid and reckless.

I don't care about what you "want". Yeah, I want things too. But a huge problem with society today is the inability to differentiate between "wants" and "needs". An HDTV is a luxury. A cell phone is a luxury. Yes, it really is. Eating out is a luxury. And there is no right to own a home. If you can't afford to buy, rent.

So I don't want to hear about "Main Street" being screwed by Wall Street. Main Street took out the loans and took on the credit. Main Street bought into this culture of consumerism and pretended they had money they didn't have.

So Main Street, eat it. You lived high off the hog off someone else's money, now you have to pay the bill. Don't lay it on me.

And of course, Wall Street is a bunch of crooks, too. They closed their eyes to the obviously fabricated loan applications. No, I take that back. They fabricated the applications themselves. They made stupid investments in sub-prime mortgages because they were greedy, and made even stupider investments to cover their losses on the stupid investments. They created and flourished in this ponzi scheme of debt. They pushed the culture of debt and convinced people that they needed more, more, and more. And it worked for a while, until finally people started noticing that, you know, they didn't actually HAVE that money that they'd been spending. And so that train just came crashing to a halt.

So Wall Street, eat it. You took the profits in years past, now you can take the loss. Don't lay it on me.

And politicos, left and right? Just stifle it. This isn't a Republican or Democratic issue. Both political sides closed their eyes to this problem, and indeed both sides made it worse. Sure you can point at one specific or another that one side did, or the other didn't do. But the bottom line is that this is a bipartisan fuckup of gigantuan proportions. Both sides have been in the pockets of corporate America. So spare me the political talk -- I'm just not buying it. Obama's not going to get us out of this, and neither is McCain.

This bailout nonsense is just that -- nonsense. I'm not inclined to bail out the companies that made this mess. Let them fail. Sure it would do awful things to the economy, but you know what? WE'RE ALREADY SCREWED. Yes, it could get worse. But I've seen nothing that makes me believe that this bailout is going to make things better. It's a band-aid. A huge, expensive flimsy band-aid that rewards the ones who fucked it all up to begin with.

And I'm not inclined to bailout the homeowners who are losing their houses, either. You chose to take on the mortgage that you couldn't afford. Don't come crying to me.

So those of us who lived within our means, didn't mismanage our finances, tried to actually save something for the future -- we're the ones who are now going to be called on to prop up the greedily criminal banks and investment houses, and to cover the mortgage payments of the irresponsible, ignorant people living in bigger houses than ours.

This isn't about rich vs poor, about haves vs have nots. It's about greed and irresponsibility, and the rest of us paying for it.

SCREW. THAT.

No bailout. Let Rome burn.

Why I Love My Wife: Reason #441531

So Abra is having a sleepover tonight. We have a total of five, count'em, five young girls upstairs screaming and hollering right now. The decibel level is truly amazing. It's a constant stream of "we want more popcorn!" "abra's bossing me!" "emma wants the light on but i want it off" "waaah!" "i want to go home" "i'm thirsty" "can we have some juice" "can we put on our pajamas" "screeech" "i need a nightlight" "abra's mom!" "abra's mom!"

And Brenna, bless her heart, is dealing with all of this while Healy and I are cowering in the TV room watching LSU-Auburn.

And there was much rejoicing

So the wife got her first new client today. She's back to earning an honest living as a defense lawyer, making the streets of Cleveland safe once again for the criminal element.

Life is good -- here's to higher crime rates!

My Diabolical Plot

(Sorry for the lack of posts lately. Between travel, beginning of the semester, and a nasty bug, I've been buried. I've got a backlog of things to post, will try and catch up over the next week or two. And if you didn't see in the comments to the missing cat post, Pearl did in fact come home. --Chris)

Like all children raised in the electronic era, the girls like to watch TV and play on the computer. If left to their own devices, they would plug themselves in from breakfast to bedtime. Not that I ever did that. ("Here's the story... of a man named Brady...", "Juuust sit right back and you'll hear a tale...", "Here we come.... walkin' down the street..." Naah, I never watched TV as a kid.) And when we tell them to shut off the TV or log out, then we get a lot of "can we watch TV now?" or "can we play on the computer now?" And I'm getting a bit tired of saying "NO!".

So we're trying a third party regulator: a digital "screen time" timer. In the morning, I set it to the total daily allotment of TV/computer time. (I'm not telling the world what it is. It's embarrassingly long. But good for my sanity.) Then, while they are on TV/computer, it ticks down. They can pause it while not watching, but if they start again, the timer goes back on. And when it hits zero, that's it for the day.

I explained the rules this morning, and hit start on the timer, and they were off like Usain Bolt to run up to the TV so that they didn't miss precious seconds of TV time while the timer was going.

So here's where the diabolical plot kicks in: if they are watching SPORTS with me or mom, that is "off-timer" -- they get that for free. My hope is that this will provide incentive for them to watch sports and continue molding them into die-hard sports fans.

I am even considering instituting a rule that says if they are watching Michigan football, the timer runs backwards.

We'll see if this works. It should be good for some comedy if nothing else.

Diabolical plan update:

Two comments from Abra while watching football today:

- "Why does he have to turn to watch the ball?" (which led to a discussion of cornerback play)

- "So Notre Dame is bad?" (which needed no discussion)