My Existence

I am under 30, I have a great job, I have real insurance now, and a roof over my head with a little bit of credit card debt.  Why am I here you ask?  Because my story is just as important as the others who are in trouble right now.  I’m going to single out one group:  The people and businesses who lived outside their means.  I sit hear listening and reading the news and I wonder why this group is being given training wheels, is being hand-held - for their mistakes?  I sit here, wondering why exactly we need to help this group of people, with no consequences for their past actions and no guarantee their future actions will be any wiser.  My life IS going to be affected by this crisis, but the effect is going to be cause by an improperly implemented stimulus package that isn’t even going to help the people who really need it - People who have lost their jobs and the companies that aren’t making any revenue because sales are poor.  Sales paid for predominantly, knowingly or not by the company, with credit.  I think a very large percentage of companies “forecast” sales and base their business decisions on that - This model doesn’t work, this crisis proves that.  A company, and even people themselves, need to operate going by worst case scenarios, all the time.  When they want to expand, instead of putting it on CREDIT or EXPECTED sales, it should be done and paid for up front.  If it is done any other way, you leave yourself open if someone bad happens, again as this crisis proves.

This crisis is going to hurt me, and I feel for everyone who has lost their job during this time.  Those people, and people who are aware enough to see the true problem, need to direct their anger and disbelief at the people responsible for this current crisis.  There are a few groups on the list, all but one are talked about:  The people who live outside their means.  You were the start of this problem, with your credit cards you couldn’t pay off and loose spending habit, the $400k+ house you didn’t need.  You gave companies reason to expect sales, you gave false forecasts.  You gave this recession its start.

I want to thank you, for ten years from now I will be paying off your debts and I won’t have a say about it.  I will be unable to do anything, and I’m going to be punished because you didn’t know how to show a little restraint.  I also want to thank the companies that jumped on the credit bandwagon who helped instigate this problem by making credit so easily available and building your entire company based on sales from fake money.  I thank you, and at the same time laugh at you, for your bad judgment.