The recent headlines about the financial meltdown occuring on wall street and main street have started me thinking about my earliest lessons in economics. My parents were born in the 30's during depression times. Their experiences and the values and experiences of their own parents were passed on to me during my childhood. I think it would have served many Americans who now find themselves in financial ruins to have been raised by my parents or in any house on Root Street, the street I grew up on. We were part of the working middle class. We were the people that got up everyday in the dark to start their day and punched a clock or filled out a time card. We lived in a nice quiet neighborhood. When you had the money you were able to become a homeowner. The ability to own a home was not a right. It was and should still be a privledge that only comes to fruition by earning it.
My parents were cash people. We did not carry credit card debt. You either had the money or you didn't need the item. If a major appliance or car repair came up my dad walked into their bedroom into some secret spot and came out with the money to buy that new wash machine or get that transmission fixed. They had saved for rainy days. There were no bailouts in those days. There was something called pride and responsibility for your own family.
On Root Street people washed their own cars and their own floors. And oh yeah, the cars they were paid for too. People waited to buy things until they could. Isn't that a concept that is sorely lacking today? I could barely leave a room and my dad was around the corner turning the light off and scolding me that the electric company had plenty of money. For fun, my dad made homemade sausages, fishing jigs, grew seedlings in the basement under growing lights to later be transplanted into our garden outside and crushed aluminum cans to sell back for cash. These were simple hobbies with valuable output that also provided contentment. Today people drive around searching for what they can buy next to fill that emptiness and whatever they find will only be a temporary fix. Coffee came out of a can, there were no $6 lattes. There were no disposable diapers for that matter. Your days were filled with the work that comes with a simple life. There was not a lot of downtime. Weekends were for yard work, house work, changing your oil and church. Vacations meant a trip to the Wisconsin Dells or the Saint Louis Arch.
When you became a teenage in my family you got a job. A work permit could be obtained at age 15, prior to that you were already babysitting for spending money. If you wanted a college education you studied hard and hoped for a scholarship. If not you took a student loan, and you paid it back on time upon graduation. You got a job, then you got your first new car...this was age 22, not 16 as most spoiled teens now expect.
Somewhere along the line, and probably near an election, politicians decided that the American dream was a given right, simply by being a citizen (or having some paperwork that claimed you were anyhow) you now deserved a home, cars, furniture all bought on credit. The banker, the broker, the builder, the salesperson all knew these loans would probably never be recouped as they shook hands on the deal. It didn't matter, once the deal closed and they made their money no one worried about the outcome...until now.
I am so thankful this was the way I was raised. It will go along way at getting me and my family through the tough times ahead. I am down right disgusted at the fact that now I am expected to bailout people who should not have had what they were given in the first place. I am sickened by the greed of banks whose CEO's walked away with hundreds of millions and will not feel the effects of this bailout. I am dismayed by the politicians who even in the face of this upheaval only have time to continue to position themselves for the next election. I am shocked at how little our leaders know about the economy and how instead of tapping into the wealth of knowledge available to them in academia and beyond they feel they can throw something like this package together and jam it down our throats like they know better.
In the meantime, I will continue to cut coupons, avoid buying what I can't afford and hope that there is something for my kids to strive for when they grow, and I will teach them what my parents taught me just in case...
