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.

Grad School Letters

So one of the aspects of my job that really should be enjoyable is writing letters of recommendation for my students applying for graduate school. And I do enjoy writing the letters for the most part. But submitting the letters has gotten to be such an aggravation that it just sent me into a steaming rage, loudly swearing a blue streak that could be heard up and down the departmental halls.

So what has happened? Well in the good old days you would just write a letter, print it out, and hand it to your department assistant to mail out. Simple, easy.

Now? Sweet fancy moses, what a pain in the ass it has become.

Now we have to fill out forms online. Each school has a different process, and the quality of implementation is often abysmal. Some places want you to "create an account" or "reuse your existing account". Create an account? Give me a break -- this isn't online banking here, I'm just trying to send a letter. Reuse my account? I do this once a year, you expect me to remember some disposable account password I use once a year? Yes, I know I can contact your technical support group, but for crying out loud, I'm just trying to send you a letter.

So here's the report from just one student's application:

• Wisconsin: online, worked fine.
• Virginia: online, and I had to create an account, but it then wouldn't accept an uploaded letter. It wanted me to type my letter into a silly little webform box, which would mean reformatting, etc. So I killed that online form, and put the letter in the mail.
• Illinois: online, create an account, and it crashed my browser when I tried to submit it, so I had to go through the whole process again. The second time it worked.
• Indiana: online, same 3rd party software ("ApplyYourself") that crashed my browser for Illinois. No problems on this one, but after submitting and getting a confirmation that it was received, about a week later the department says they in fact never got it and asks me to email the letter again.
• Ohio State: online application that again wouldnt let me upload a letter, but wanted my to type my letter into a webform. But they also want me to send in a duplicate copy of BOTH my letter AND my rating form. So why am I asked to submit it online?
• Penn State: seems to be paper only.
  

So here are my pleas:

To my students: I'm happy to write you letters. It's my great pleasure to see your successes and help you attain them. But this has become a real time sink, which is why I ask you to get me all the information well ahead of time; please do so. And it's why you should deliver me a six pack of good beer when I am done.

To most graduate programs: STOP THIS NONSENSE! Just give me an email address where I can send you a letter and be done with it.

To the few graduate programs who do have a simple online recommendation process: Thank you.

To my colleagues writing recommendation letters to Case: I hear our online recommendation form is also abysmally bad. Just skip it entirely, and e-/snail-mail me your recommendation. I'll get it into the right hands.

Good god, weren't computers and the intertubes supposed to make our lives easier?

Skool Daze

So the local school board, in their infinite wisdom, decided last fall to close down our neighborhood elementary school. The school right down the street from us. The school Abra would start at in a month's time, and Thalia two years from now.

When the school board started the process of deciding which school to close, they stressed community involvement in the issue. They would hold open forums, ask for community feedback, look at the financial picture, etc. And then make a reasoned decision based on all these factors.

What a crock.

The board took two schools off the board right off the bat, for reasons which still remain unclear. Then when both the financial models and the community input pointed towards other schools for closure, suddenly, magically, the school board produces a new document saying our school, Coventry, needed another two million dollars worth of repairs.

And then they voted to close it.

And a week afterwards, that repair estimate gets quietly "revised" to about a tenth that cost.

What a scam. There's more -- including the school board violating sunshine laws, lying under oath, predetermining the decision, etc -- but I'm too disgusted with the whole situation to type it all out. If you want to hear more, go to the OPEN blog. And while you're there, think about donating to the OPEN fund.

But it gets better -- now the school board is asking us to support a new levy. And therein lies the point of this post.

I have lived here for ten years, without children until the last six months. And every time a levy vote came up, I voted for it, despite the fact that I had no kids and, for a long time, believed I would never have kids. But I believe in public schools, and have supported them at every turn. They are a critically important part of a community and deserve our support. And afters years of supporting my local schools, I now find myself with children of my own to use the neighborhood elementary school --- and they close it down in the most duplicitous manner.

And now they ask me for more money.

I wish I could give it directly to the individual schools, to buy books, to renovate buildings, to transport the kids. I wish I could give it to the teachers, to get paid competitive salaries, to buy supplies for their classrooms. I wish I could give it to the students, so they could buy notebooks and pencils and play in music groups and sports teams.

But I can't. The money I give isn't ultimately managed by the schools, or the teachers, or the kids -- it's managed by the school board. And I don't trust them to make honest, ethical decisions to help the schools. Not after this. And I'm not giving them my money, or at least not my support on the levy.

So here's my promise: if this school board resigns, I will support the levy in full. Without that, you're not getting my vote. And I'm not alone in that -- I have talked to many people who say the same thing. Long-time public school supporters, levy supporters, who now are unable to trust this school board.

So, to the CH/UH school board: support the schools by resigning your position. Or go ahead and try passing the levy without Coventry. Your choice. But if you opt for the latter, good luck with that. I think you'll be in for a surprise.