who's to blame?

There is certaintly plenty of blame to go around regarding our current financial crisis. This blame can be passed out like ice cream cones to all members of our government (maybe one of those new Ben & Jerry flavors). Main street shares in this responsibility as well. Too many have overextended themselves with loans that common sense would have suggested they couldn't afford.

10 years ago, when my husband & I bought our house (our first and only), Chase Manhattan pre-approved us for $140,000 - this was when $140 would by a nice moderate house. I knew that we could not afford to go that high - we ended up buying a house for $109, well within our budget. Often when we would go to gatherings with our friends, the whole ride home I had to listen to my husband complain that the "Jones'" have a bigger house, with nicer furniture (our first sofa was a hand-me down from a frat house - god only knows what DNA was on that old thing, they had nicer cars trucks, etc...

Most in my generation( I was born in '69) don't want to have to work for things the way our parents did. They expect that they should already have what it took my parents 40 years to achieve. Far too often I would go to Linens-N-Things and see the bedding that was $400-$600 dollars, then go over to Target to get a $30 blanket for my bed, then when my black lab decides to scratch the hell out of it - I'm not too ticked off.

For every step I take, something comes along to knock me three steps back. And yes, we have incurred some credit card debt - not from frivolous spending but from transmissions, hot water heaters, plumbing issues, etc - but I have ALWAYS paid the mortgage first. Even when times were really hard and it was questionable if the house note could be paid - I worked even harder (currently working 1 week after having hernia surgery and putting in approx. 60 hours).

Listen, I am not trying to bill myself as a martyr or a saint. I'm just a very hard working middle classer that is furious about the current state of affairs and not hearing the blame game being placed in all the right places.

I would also like to state that I am really embarassed by my entry las week about middle-eastern gas station owners. My comments were slanted and ignorant - and oddly enough, don't really represent my true beliefs. No excuse - except maybe pain killers?

hey there dawn...

Submitted by Main Stream on Mon, 09/29/2008 - 1:59pm.

Thanks for sharing your story about trying to live within your means - kudo's to you and hubby. I agree that it is both parties that have sunk us into this hole and I'd personally like to slap both Barney Frank and Phil Graham upside the head for their roles in this mess, along with several other D's and R's.

I'm an eternal optimist - I was dropped on my head as a kid - and I believe that our country will emerge stronger after the dust has settled, although it will take years to get back on track. But I think that we, as consumers, have learned a tough lesson to live within our means, buy our blankies at Target instead of Linens & Things, and NOT charge everything on credit cards, put money in savings, and eat at home more often. I still believe the "good old days" are ahead of us.

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"You can lead a Republican to the truth, but you can't make him think."

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Hey dawn,

Submitted by Cyclist on Mon, 09/29/2008 - 1:12pm.

That's OK. I've more than once re-thought something that I posted and wished I could have taken it back. And I've been humbled more than few times on this board. You think you really know something about a subject only to find someone knows far more than you.
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hey cyclist

Submitted by dawn69 on Mon, 09/29/2008 - 1:32pm.

Yeah! Let's only keep the smart people on this site and vote off all the REALLY smart people - they're pissing me off! Seems to me that we are all really passionate people (on both sides of the political pendulum) and I respect that in a person. If you're going to believe a certain way - be strong in your convictions, passionate about your cause, but open enough to listen to your opponent. Alot of men and women have given their lives to preserve our right to believe and speak how we choose. I think all of us on this blog site honour them by doing so. I disagree with alot of what gets posted here (except the PETA thing - the ice cream flavours were really entertaining and I now see that the Palin name game was done in the same humor) but I continue coming to this site because I find most of you very interesting.

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Oh yeah, the PETA thingy......

Submitted by Cyclist on Mon, 09/29/2008 - 1:38pm.

darn that muddle.
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Caution - The Surgeon General has determined that constant blogging is an addiction that can cause a sedentary life style.

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