In America, it's Always Someone else's Fault

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Category: Bryan Vinson

Published on Friday, 26 August 2011 16:07

Written by Bryan Vinson

While it is easy to sit back and blame rich people, conservative politicians, liberal politicians, moderate politicians, unions, corporations, activists, lobbyists, and George Bush for all of our problems, there is still a missing element that can be blamed but never is. We rarely discuss it. It’s us. We the people. As John Boehner likes to say – “The American people.”  I’ve written many opinions myself getting on the case of the Obama administration, or liberal ideals in general. That’s okay. It’s my opinion. Sometimes though I wonder if we’re sometimes like food critics. We don’t do a single thing to help prepare the meal, but we will sit there and rip it to shreds if it doesn’t meet our standards. The truth is that, in America, government can really force you to do very little. They can affect policy that shapes how you might do something. They can make things easier or difficult to accomplish things. But in the end, it’s up to us to make things happen.

A sports metaphor:  The coach can run the practice, create the game plan, and manage the personnel on the field, but it’s up to the players to achieve the success. For all of our political talk about who should earn what, who should be taxed what, and who should get what benefits, we’ve lost sight that we’re not really playing and blaming the coaches for the game plan, and our best players for hogging the ball. Take the sub prime bubble bust. Millions of Americans took on loans they couldn’t afford. Some of it was predatory, but let’s be honest. Did we not hear about a zero down low interest rate loan that involved no real credit check? What did WE do in response that? We jumped on it, and as usual it was too good to be true. We ignored or didn’t understand the fine print. Or maybe we assumed we’d be making more money in five years when the adjustable rate kicked in. You know what they say about assuming. “Don’t assume.” The finger pointing from the players immediately began. Its governments fault. (They do share the blame. Fannie and Freddie anybody?) It’s Wall Street’s fault. (What were they thinking?) But we absolve ourselves and our behavior. It’s not just the sub prime mortgage crisis. Our daily lives run on a credit card. The average American family services 800 dollars in debt per month, not counting rent or mortgage. We buy what we want when we want. We don’t bother with saving for emergencies. We borrow money from the rich, and then we complain about rich people. Do we think that someone is in magical control of our wallets? Rich people who overspend end up broke too. Since we don’t prepare for the bad things, we end up HAVING to turn to government for support. Those are OUR decisions.  We complain of lack of opportunity. We do.  But then we go to school, provided free via taxes, and don’t try. Sometimes we drop out. We never bother with a trade school, or college. Those that do go to college sometimes get more obsessed with where they go than why they go. Now we end up starting life out with a blood sucking student loan payment and a degree with no real usefulness.  We expect a job, making real money right out of the gate. We may have even believed it was practically a “right.” It’s not, and most of us have to pay our dues that we just don’t want to pay. These aren’t decisions a government can control, or a wealthy person can curve through wealth redistribution. We complain about crummy schools and teachers being paid low salaries. Then we demand and soak up money in benefits from state and federal government that could go to teachers to adequately educate and train us (if we were interested). Personal responsibility has taken a leave of absence in the United States.

I had a job making a certain but not great amount of money. I spent more than I made. I didn’t bother saving for emergencies and getting out of debt. I was going backwards. I changed my attitude. I started budgeting. Paying off debt. Saving. I made different choices. And although I didn’t change my level of income, or have income redistributed to me, my financial situation is far improved.  I did that. I’ve worked for it. Not Warren Buffet. Not President Obama. Not President Reagan. It’s always up to us in the end. The government can’t make a law saying unemployment is illegal. Facing a recession with a 10 plus unemployment rate, Reagan basically stepped out of the way. There was no one saying the government was going to save you. Reagan gets all the credit for that recovery, but it was US that did the work. It was the people who made it happen. He recognized that when he said - “Prosperity is something created by businessmen for politicians to take credit for.”

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