Why our economy stinks

We've all heard about how everybody in the nation is losing their homes because of the mortgage crisis. That led to the government to put a freeze on foreclosures. So we have mortgages not getting paid this lead us to banks with bad debt at risk of failure which could theoretically ruin our entire economy. In steps the government to bail out the banks with close to a trillion dollars that appears out of thin air. This leads to drastic inflation as the dollar plummets. Japan and China then buy massive amounts of US stock and the idea of buying American joins the ranks of other long last dreams such as honest politician, and affordable gasoline.

How did we get here? I'll tell you how we got here, we stopped heeding the warnings of those people who lived through the depression. Those words are no longer heard because most of those people are dead. The generation that suffered through the depression learned first hand what it meant to work for a living. They were so afraid of hitting hard times again that they spent the rest of their lives preparing for that possibility. They didn't accumulate debt for a new flashy car or plasma screen TV. They didn't spend 50% of their income on a mortgage payment. They also didn't spend a couple grand on power tools after graduating from school but before receiving a paycheck from their first real job.

I don't have a solution to the current financial crisis, but I certainly don't think that a $700 billion band aid is going to fix things. Maybe we are destined to have another depression if for no other reason than to burst the debt bubble that is Western Society.