Financial Crisis: Maybe These Fools Just Plain Deserve It

Lately I’ve heard an awful lot of local ignoramuses complaining about the state of the economy, the decline in their investments and just plain how “bad” they have it. They feel so betrayed and have a long list of people to blame and hate.

It seems they will blame anybody, but won’t take responsibility for their own role in their predicament. Its sort of comical to see them all running around scared, acting like this is all a big surprise, but one thing is for certain: if they hadn’t had their heads so far up their asses, they’d have seen this coming years ago.

I would like to tell you the story of one individual, who I have been over-hearing today, who seems particularly deserving of a wake-up call.

This person, who has been particularly vocal, has talked about how, due to the developing financial crisis, they has been forced to make some major changes in their life. They speak of moving 401(k) assets to “guaranteed stable” assets such as money markets and how they “lost 10% this year,” as well as how they have most of their savings in their 401(k) .

They say that they are chomping at the bit to pay off debts, cash out their CD’s and get into a sound financial position.

They blame the crude-oil situation on OPEC and the Arabs and they say that we should just “leave the middle east, drop a bomb on them and let them kill each other.” Yes, they think that, just because it costs a little more to fill up their SUV, that all of the Arabs should just die.

Well, lets just start with their financial decisions. They put most of their savings in their 401(k) and CD’s, for starters, why?

Well…. I think the reasoning probably goes something like this: “I use the 401(k) because someone else will manage it for me and I won’t have to pay any commission. And with a CD I won’t have to worry about risk since it is a ‘guaranteed’ return.”

First off, when you put money in a 401(k), you lose control of your money. You can’t choose but a handful of investments (most of which are now plummeting and all of which are mutual funds or money markets) and your money must remain there (usually) until you leave your current employer. Doesn’t that sound like a bright idea to you?!?!?!

Its YOUR money, so why don’t you take some time to research and pick your own investments . Even by NOT making a choice, instead letting someone else make the decisions, you are deciding to not decide for yourself. So the only person who really has the responsibility is YOU and you alone.

When you save your money in the bank, or buy shares in a bank, then the bank goes under and you lose out, that is YOUR doing as well, since you should have done your research and understood the kinds of assets and the level of transparency that you are dealing with.

Many people have been getting wake-up calls lately, since Lehman Brothers went under. They put their cash in one of those “guaranteed value” funds and now they are claimants to the bankruptcy proceedings that are about to take place. It is truly disturbing to see how gullible people are, to believe that any investment has a “guaranteed value,” but there are a great many people who buy the lie, and they are going to get their asses handed to them if they fail to protect themselves.

Without further ado, I’d like to move on to the last topic. It is a favorite for Americans especially, the hatred of foreigners. Oh, they hate those dark-skinned foreigners, why? They say its because they “lie, cheat and steal.”

They say that OPEC is responsible for Oil prices being where they are. They say that the Muzzies will kill us all if we don’t kill them first.

These are the actions of an ego-maniac, desperately seeking to avoid confronting their own self-hood. The “kill them before they kill us” mentality has no founding in reality, only in insanity. The majority of the killing is being done by the people who share the attitudes similar to the individual described above.

I’ve got a bit of advice for the people of this persuasion: Get off your ass for once and do your own due diligence. Learn about the world around you (through some medium other than Fox, CBS, ABC, NBC) and stop acting so shocked when your system fails you.

Most of all, stop blaming everyone else for your shortcomings. You helped to put yourself in this situation. You helped to destroy the image of this country. You are your own worst enemy and you can blame your family, your government or anyone else all you want; but none of this changes the fact that you need to take a good hard look at yourself and learn how to do things differently, so YOU are no longer part of the problem, but are instead part of the solution.

The bottom line is, stop being a victim and expecting someone else to provide you the answers. Be part of the answer and make your own solutions.