I know a man who is quite proud of two things: his status as a unwavering liberal and his lavish lifestyle. He often boasts of his wealth, both in terms of cash on hand and investments. He lives in a luxurious home located (but of course) in the toniest of communities, something which he often references in conversation with others. His life is devoted to status, to wealth, and to… well, himself above all. Certainly above all others.
The other day, I noticed him looking quite downcast. Being the nice guy that I am — all right, I heard that snickering out there — I asked what was bothering him. He proceeded to lament how the financial crisis had in the past two months drained a half million dollars from his investment portfolio. I knew he was upset when in the next sentence he did something normally quite foreign to his nature: ask me a question instead of telling me the answer for questions never asked. He looked straight at me and said, “Why is this happening?”
Being of relatively sound mind, I declined the opportunity for a specific reply, instead laying out the facts already presented in this extremely modest corner of cyberspace. On reflection, I lament not seizing the moment to state the simple truth.
Do you want to know who’s to blame for this?
Easy.
It’s you.
No, really. It’s you.
Not past administrations. Not Congress. Not the banks. Not the mortgage companies. Not the people who took out loans they could never hope to repay.
It’s you.
It’s all on you.
You see, somewhere along the line you bought into the notion that you were entitled to the good life. And so you lived it. You bought the house, the car, the membership at the country club — the whole package. You ate at the best restaurants and drank the finest wine. You had it made.
Or so you thought.
The truth is when you bought into the notion that you were entitled you bought into the lie that you were entitled. It’s the same lie that drove who knows how many into signing up for loans they could never repay. They too thought they were entitled, for entitled is another word for owning what one believes one should have because one by their definition of such things deserves to have it regardless of whether one can actually pay for what they desire to own. The only difference between you and them is that you could afford it. To a point, anyway.
So where did this notion that someone without the means to pay should enjoy the same right of ownership as those with the means to pay come from?
From you.
Not you specifically, of course. But from your liberal mindset.
It’s never bothered you before now that the left’s goal of, under the guise of compassion for the less fortunate, creating a socialistic state where the government mandates personal income and lifestyle by forcibly redistributing wealth has you dead in its sights with legislation for executing its agenda locked and loaded. Why should it have bothered you? You know all the tricks for dodging taxes. No worries. It wasn’t going to be your money they came after. And so you went along your merry way.
Until the day it all started falling apart.
You hadn’t figured on a law passed during one liberal administration and strengthened during another that demanded lenders abandon fundamental, sound business practices when determining who would get a loan and for how much. Any credit card company that started opening accounts with people who had no genuine shot at paying their bill under the mantra “these people are as deserving of the right to shop at Macy’s as the well-to-do” would be immediately pilloried for taking advantage of the disadvantaged. No, you can’t buy a $300 pair of shoes without the ability to pay for it. A $300,000 house? No problem. Sign here.
You hadn’t figured on local activists such as community organizers — now where have we heard that term before — using the CRA as a stick and the media as a bully pulpit demanding lenders go beyond what even the CRA mandated. You hadn’t figured on the whole thing exploding the moment housing prices went as high as they could go and started coming down. You hadn’t figured on this signaling the end of people being able to at least on paper cover their inability to pay their mortgage by constantly refinancing and taking out equity loans. You hadn’t figured on the whole rotten mess started when the liberal beliefs you hold so dear dictated social concerns trump financial prudence and hang the expense. If we have to tap the public till we will. But that will never happen. These banks and investment firms are stinking loaded with cash. It’s our obligation to tell them to share it! They’ll still have plenty left over. Nothing can go wrong. Nothing…
Well, it did.
And who’s to blame?
You. You and the people like you who sang a happy tune while believing “they” could somehow pay for it all. Now, “they” can’t. “They” are dropping like flies at a insecticide expo. And since “they” were the ones holding your investments…
The mirror can be brutal, now can’t it.
