Did you ever consider that there might be no good solution to this mess?

[Stoic]

I was at a meeting of my Dem club a few months ago when we had a couple of state senators speaking. They talked about the housing crisis and how they wanted to help people. I remember saying that what was needed was to help the grannies who got scammed into balloon mortgages and ARM's when all they wanted was to get a better rate on a mortgage. DON'T BAIL OUT THE FLIPPERS AND "INVESTORS" AND REAL ESTATE "PROFESSIONALS" who helped get us into this mess.

It seems obvious to any sentient being that the Republican "solution" is just another swindle opening the US Treasury even further to their cronies. The Democrats are posturing again trying to "negotiate" with people who consider negotiation another form of date rape (oh, the Dems will act tough until capitulating to Mr. 24%). We hear about "trying to save peoples homes", but what if everything they do, every solution just makes it worse?

Maybe there is no good solution but to let this all play out and pick up the pieces at the end.

[pangaea]

1. i agree..

i don't see the value of buying junk paper.

i have yet to see where the fed is getting all this money since it's piled on top our already trillions of debt.

i say let the chips fall where they may and neighbors help the foreclosure victims by opening up their homes and go back to some semblance of barter or neighbor to neighbor lending since the big banks have failed us.

[DJ13]

2. There is NO good solution

Which is why we need to stop the government from saddling the tax payers with another trillion in debt just to help the wealthy.

[The2ndWheel]

3. Do I ever not consider that?

Every solution we have is based around bringing more people, in some way, into the same system. The more we do that, the fewer options we leave ourselves. The fewer options we have, the more we have to pile onto the current system just to keep it going, since more and more people are tied to it. That's been going on for thousands of years, to the point where a problem with a single country's housing industry can come ever so close to melting down a global economy.

So we can't pay the trillion+ dollars, but we can't not pay it either. To let the system fail is to basically to be responsible for more than every 20th century dictator combined. To keep the system going is to just increase the scale of the problem until you finally run out of options.

Now, if the whole thing did fail, perhaps the adaptability of most people in the face of that type of change would be sufficient. However, for example, since a lot of people don't even know where the food they eat specifically comes from, it might not be so easy.

Also, maybe we won't run out of options. We do live on a finite planet though, and a part of life, not apart from it, so we are subject to the same conditions as any other creature on this rotating ball of directionless mass.

So no, there really is no answer. If this were a situation we found ourselves in only in the last 8 years, that's one thing, but of course it isn't. If this were a situation we found ourselves in only the last 28 years, that's another thing, but it isn't. This is the situation we find ourselves in because of the history and momentum of the last few thousand years. It didn't happen because of one decision, or one choice here and there.

[palincomparison]

4. I saw the movie "I.O.U.S.A" yesterday

If it's in your area, I recommend it heartily. We are sca-rewed! And cutting ANYONE'S taxes right now is ri-effing-dick-ous. Bad, bad idea! Our deficit is waaay too big to do anything but raise taxes on those over $90,000 and leave those below as is (although if people earn less than $15,000, perhaps they shouldn't have to pay taxes at all).