It's the Economy Stupid

I used to drive around and look at all the big houses that were being built around Central Pennsylvania. A big house in these parts goes for about $350,000 to $400,000. Of course in California that would not even equal the cost of a tool shed.

I would constantly wonder who could afford all these big homes that are going up?

I mean a graphic artist doesn't make as much as an engineer or a doctor. But I did pretty good for myself. When you're a 22-year-old in the graphics business you find yourself amongst millions of other 22-year-old graphic artists. If you actually pass 30-years-old and are still in the business, you can say that you've made it.

I talk to a lot of young people who want to be a graphic artist. I ask them why they would want to do such a thing. And they say, "It seems like it would be so much fun!" I laugh and I tell them, "Well when it actually seems like work, like a job, well then you'll know you're getting good at it."

We need more people saying that they want to be doctors because "it looks like it would be so much fun!"

Don't get me wrong. I do love what I do, and what I've done. But there's just too many graphic artists out there, and 95-percent of them will drop out of the profession because they thought it would be fun, and it didn't turn out to be.

But even us lowly graphic artists, everybody it seems, was buying these big, expensive houses that just kept going up all over this area. And I kept asking myself what I was doing wrong?

Well, I was living within my means. As my Dad always said about credit, "I don't really understand how you can buy something if you don't have the money."

I don't have access to everyones' bank accounts. But I am guessing that a majority of people buying these big, expensive homes were sinking themselves deep in debt. And the wave of foreclosures that hit the housing market this past year was just a necessity waiting to occur.

Now the federal government has announced that it's bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage giants. And guess where the feds get the money to be able to do this? That's right, tax dollars, your dollars and my dollars.

So I budget, live within my means, plan well, and I end up paying to bail all the people out who sank themselves into enormous debt, and the companies who led them there.

And the GOP considers welfare bad? How about all of the welfare for the wealthy?

If anyone mentions universal healthcare to the Bush administration they go nuts. That would not be a good use of tax dollars.

But bailing out Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is?

Oh great, the people who bought $400,000 homes in Central Pennsylvania even though they couldn't afford it will now have their debt subsidized by the federal government. That's where my tax dollars will be going.

But God forbid that my tax dollars go to someone who needs healthcare. That would just be a bad idea.

I would never deny anyone success, or the rewards from their success. But there comes a point when success just becomes greed. And the longing for success for the middle class often becomes greed that then becomes debt.

Does a person need seven houses?

We can barely keep up with keeping our one house clean. We blame Freckles. Perhaps the feds will bail us out by paying for a housekeeper for any taxpayer with a cat named "Freckles."