There are lots of parked domains out there. So I’m going to use them in this article to disguise a commentary that really has nothing to do with domain names.
It’s election year in the United States. That means countless commercials promising a “better America” and lots of political pandering to the masses.
The state of America isn’t so grand right now. There’s talk of recession and the stock market has plunged over the past 2 months. There’s a mortgage crisis because too many people took out house loans they can’t afford and now want to blame someone else. The national debt is over 9 trillion dollars and it’s growing at nearly $1.6 billion a day because the government continues to spend taxpayer’s money and find a way to pay for it later. After all, that’s what gets politicians elected.
In a few months, the government will send welfare checks (disguised as “tax rebates”) to millions of Americans. It’s called “fiscal stimulus”, but it’s really an election year attempt to win voters. Imagine the politican who voted against giving free money to citizens! It’s really just a loan, since someone will have to pay it back eventually (my generation) and the government is already running a deficit. This sort of “spend what you don’t have” government philosophy trickles down to the masses.
Right now the presidential primaries are sweeping the nation. Texas has its primaries (cacauses) in March, and for the first time in a while Texas actually matters. We’ve had Obama and Clinton in town lately, including for a debate last week at The University of Texas. These presidential hopefuls are on unusual turf — trying to sell themselves to Texans. This is unusual because, regardless of which Democrat wins Texas, they’ll lose the state to the Republicans in November.
Whenever you watch a debate, be sure to check the facts afterward on FactCheck.org. Or as Frank Schilling would prefer, FactCheck.com.
The politicians are promising all sorts of things right now. Apparently Clinton wants to turn America into a socialist state by freezing mortgage interest rates for 5 years. That’s brilliant! We may as well void all business contracts and just give stuff away for free. That will instill confidence in our economic system.
Now, for those of you Texans thinking about voting in March, I have a warning for you: regardless of which side you vote with (democrats or republicans), voting in the primary puts you “on the list”. You’ll will be hounded for the next year by the party you voted with. They’ll hound you for money. They’ll call your house to sell you on themselves. They’ll show up at your door. Apparently, voting in a primary is akin to signing up for a spammer’s opt-in e-mail list.
Am I jaded? Sure. I take solace in the fact that whomever is elected president won’t be able to push their crazy ideas through without some checks and balances.
Right??
spinoza says
great post!!!
well…all you have to do is vote for Ron Paul.
Andrew says
Ah, Ron Paul. A lot of bright ideas taken too far for my tastes 🙂
Peter says
I don’t think I could have put it so eloquently in words..
Renata says
“There’s a mortgage crisis because too many people took out house loans they can’t afford and now want to blame someone else.”
Utterly simplistic and wrong. People took out loans they CAN afford, it’s just that deep in the 30 page+ loan document billionaire financial institutions packed a time bomb for each one, cleverly couched in incomprehensible language. They counted on booting the people out of their houses and eating their equity in a couple of years, but, alas, they didn’t count on every other billionaire financial institution using the exact same tactic for fast, unscrupulous enrichment. So, they took down the entire economy and made everyone’s home’s liquidity vanish. People can afford their home, they just can’t afford double the mortgage payment each month, can you?
Andrew says
Renata, I have an adjustable rate mortgage. Believe me, the rate change is not buried on page 30. It’s clearly detailed, and in fact the APR statement from the lender shows the APR if the rate gets adjusted to the maximum.
I do believe there were some cases of people lying to mortgage customers and burrying things in fine print, but this is the exception and not the norm.
Renata says
I think the latest numbers on foreclosures are in the millions. So you are telling me there are millions of devious little homeowners who tried to screw the poor little billionaire financial institutions, not the other way around? These financial guys who designed these loans are experts in what they are doing. Homeowners knew their rates were adjustable but many were shocked by how much the monthly payments soared when reset – apparently by enough to cause them to lose their homes (translation: not $100 bucks a month, but $500-$2000 a month – OUTRAGEOUS!). Many were told or assumed they could refinance when the reset happened only to find out that is no longer possible because of stratospheric economic changes that have nothing to do with their credit or behavior as borrowers. These millions kicked out of their homes are going to represent a windfall for these billionaire financial institutions. If they happen to have kids that need to go to college or need surgery not covered by insurance or god forbid want to take a vacation, they are going to pay exorbitant rates to borrow money; the punishment will be dealt out for decades to come. It’s mean and uninformed to simply say “they bought homes they can’t afford and now they want to blame someone else”. There is real tragedy here, and there are victims and victimizers.
Andrew says
I said I believe there are cases of mortgage sales people lying to customers, not the other way around. I think there was bad stuff going on, so I agree with you on that point.
But one thing really irked me the other day. I was reading a CNN i-reporter talking about what they’d do with their check from the government. They said “Unfortunately we’ll have to use it to pay off debt. We’ve been caught up in this ‘mortgage crisis’ and have too much in debt now.”
Umm, that’s not the mortgage crisis’ fault. That’s there fault for taking out a mortgage they can’t afford.
On another point, people feel like it’s a right to own a home. Our politicans call it part of the “American Dream”. Well, it’s not a right and quite frankly, not everyone should own a home. If you take pride in it and can afford it, you should go for it. If you don’t like the responsibility or can’t afford it, you shouldn’t buy a home.
Renata says
Perhaps you should have saved some energy typing and just written “f*** the working poor”. If people can’t and shouldn’t try to own a home, exactly what are they supposed to do when they are 65+ and retiring? Presuming they were too poor to have a 401k anyway and let’s not even talk about a pension plan since that is a dinosaur in American society already, do you propose that those millions of people plan to pay full market rent until death out of their social security? Do you know how much social security is compared to a modern day rent? You are basically saying the working poor don’t deserve the chance to try to invest in their future and gain equity and shelter for their old age. Because this is the ticket that was sold to millions of people and for which they are being punished now. It’s not some pyramid scheme, it’s basic housing we’re talking about.
Andrew says
Houses aren’t always a good investment, which is the bill of goods people have been wrongly sold. In a lot of markets “rents” on rental property are less than on houses.
And people need to learn to live within their means. Unfortunately the government has been setting a bad example by spending more than it makes. If you spend more than you make, eventually it catches up to you.
But I’m not going to take this one any further…we can just agree to disagree.