Economic Fear and Personal Responsibility

15 Oct

Dave RamseyAs I listen to the news I am struck by the lack of personal responsibility among everyone involved in this financial crisis. From the politicians who advocated the wrong positions years ago that encouraged the bad behavior of the banks and those who borrowed more money than they could repay. If you listen, everyone is blaming everybody else – without taking any blame themselves.

The politicians have a knack to vote in such a way that they can claim they were for something if it turns out good, or against something if it turns out bad. Of course, they are never responsible for any position they hold.

The banks are blaming everyone. The people they lent the money to aren’t paying the money back. The assets that support the loans are being devalued. Never mind that they lent money to people who shouldn’t even have qualified for the loans in the first place. They took the risk – now they don’t want to live with the results.

The people who borrowed more money than they can pay back. How may people borrowed money with adjustable rate mortgages that once adjusted couldn’t afford them anymore. They are blaming the banks for getting them into an adjustable rate mortgage. I even heard a story of Oprah’s Mom saying that the bank shouldn’t have lent her any money. They should have known better!

Where is the personal responsibility? Shouldn’t we all get our own financial houses in order? If you borrow money – it is your responsibility to repay it. If you can’t repay it, you shouldn’t borrow it. If you are going to borrow money over a period of 30 years – you should make sure you will be able to continue to make those payments for 30 years. If things are getting a little tight financially – who says you can’t work two jobs?

If you are a lending institution – why are you lending money to people who can’t pay it back? I have heard stories of banks lending money to people without jobs! Incredible! Lending standards need to be tightened. Does that mean that some people won’t be able to purchase a house? Yes – until they get their own financial houses in order. Depending on their own situation – it may always be more economical to rent than to buy. A good way to determine this is to use one of many rent vs. buy calculators like this one.

If you are a politician – God help you. Please support policies that limits Government intervention into our everyday lives. History is rife with examples of situations getting worse when government gets involved. Does the government really need to own banks? With government printing all of this bailout money – can this be good for the economy? I don’t think so.

Anybody and everybody should stop right now and embrace a dependency on God. I just read a post by Jeff Leake at the LaunchPad where he paraphrased Dave Ramsey. In it, Dave said that we should “shake off the spirit of fear and declare our dependence on God, who is far bigger than this economic crisis.”

Speaking of economic fear – the news keeps harping that home values are going down. Who does that really affect? Anyone trying to sell their house or refinance their house, right? If you are currently in your home, and planning to stay there for a long time – it doesn’t really matter does it? As for me – I’m actually looking forward to protesting my valuation for property tax purposes. If the value of homes are going down, I definitely want to pay lower property taxes! I’ll use the savings to add an extra payment toward debt elimination!

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