My Thoughts on the Economy

I guess the best place for me to start is the causes of this mess we have. This is very debatable and I am not saying that I am correct in this. But, it is my opinion that poor decisions by banks and by borrowers is the root cause. Certainly, fuel costs and the war on terror did not help. But we have always had a military and we have always paid for fuel provided by terrorist hosting nations.But that's another issue. Back to the root cause, I think greed and envy(see moms post on religion and sins) have created a monster that we must now correct and clean up. When things were booming through the Clinton years and early Bush years, banks wanted took great risks to make huge profits. Borrowers took advantage of this and borrowed more than they could afford, and often should not have qualified for, to "Keep up with the Jones'". Now that "floating" mortgage payments have gone up and credit cards are maxed out, the bubble has burst. Now credit is restricted even for people with decent credit and factory ordered are way down. People are losing jobs at a fast pace due to all of this.
Now, what are the solutions? I honestly don't know. We can't go back to a time when everyone can borrow as much as they want. This would deepen the hole we are in.You know the saying, "If you find yourself in a hole, STOP DIGGING!" You must have good credit and a job to borrow money. This should be obvious. I think that bailing out banks and car companies is a terrible idea. I would rather see the trillions of dollars go to the people just like us. If we get tax relief and real stimulus, we will spend the money and increase factory orders. We can't count on CEO's and board members to "release credit". I don't want to sound like I am against CEO's, if they make lots of money, good for them. That's how this country works, if you succeed, you get rewarded. But, How dare they take a $15,000,000 "bonus" and then ask for "bailout" money. Doing so should constitute severe punishment.
We need to change our heads to survive and correct this recession. I was just building a Lincoln Log house with Andrew and ate lunch with my in laws yesterday and something struck me. It is currently 72deg. in my house. I had to go to the freezer for waffles this morning because we have so much food that we need an extra freezer. My kids had nice clean clothes to wear this morning. Yesterday we ate with Billy and Nancy and topic of discussion was how bad it is.( It's always bad with them.) Meanwhile, there where three chickens on the grill and more veggies than would fit in one plate. The kids had toys to play with and the birds and squirrels had plenty of food and entertained us. My point is that things could be alot worse. Everyone that reads this is suffering somewhat from the poor economy. But also everyone that reads this is very blessed. We don't have to decide who in the house eats today or, those clothes can be worn one more time before washing. There are plenty of "free" things we can do to keep us happy. It does not cost one penny to play a game that you own.(If you don't own a game, go to Grand and Opa's house, lol). Play Playstation or build a Lincoln Log house. If you have a digital camera, you can go out and take photos for free. We should just count our blessings!
Things WILL get better, They always have and always will. We have very popular president that I think can help people improve there mental state. This is my challenge to my family members and friends. Any time someone tells you how BAD things are, counter them with how GOOD things are, and remind them of how bad it could be. This can and will change to conversation and both of your moods. keep your heads up and keep fighting through this. The only thing that will fix this mess is "us". Not the banks, or the government, or the auto companies, or anyone else who wants bailout money. I love you all very much!