We who have been doing due diligence with our money will not silently stand to have the Big Uncle (who’s name, in case you’ve forgotten, is Sam) take our money to bail out those fools among us who have been foolish with their money. What were they thinking? Duh!!!
Some of us, like yours truly, have already paid our dues in the housing market and don’t want to be compelled by the strong arm of government to pay a fool’s dues. We both signed on the dotted line to our mortgage notes without a gun pointed at our heads. In my case, I eschewed all the easy-money bogus financing schemes and bought my house in 1994 on a conventional 30-year note. In July of 2001, I lost my job. Having a big, fat savings account, I decided to take the rest of the summer off. On September 10th, 2001, I decided that it was time to get back to work. Two days later…there were no jobs to be found. Timing is everything. I completely drained my savings — including my retirement, over the next four years that it took me to get a decent-paying job. Having preached for years against government-mandated unemployment insurance, I stood my ground and did not run down to get in line — not at the start, middle, or end of my unemployment. It was not easy living, but I managed to keep both my house and car. In the meantime, I was unable to pay for mounting, necessary repairs. Once I got a decent-paying job and out of all the accumulated debt — having paid back every last G-d dime I had put on multiple credit cards after my savings ran out — the repair bill for the house was several thousand dollars more than if I had been able to do them when the problems first began.
I even wrote President Bush in 2004, when he was to appear here in Houston, that I would volunteer my services as a “poster boy” for his calling on Americans to show personal responsibility. My call was not returned — his actions since demonstrate his words to have been nothing but BS.
So, having already paid my dues…I now call upon each of you to pay your own dues. For all you who refused to live within your means…too bad — go eat macaroni and cheese for breakfast and supper (you’ll just have to skip lunch). For all you lenders who’s greed outweighed normal common sense — and you are now getting all your collateral handed back to you on a sh-t platter…too bad — I’m sure that Kraft will gladly sell you macaroni and cheese, too.
