Financial crisis: There's plenty of blame to go around

I remember when calling a credit card 'plastic' was a derogatory term. You had status if you carried a credit card. Then everyone had one... or six. Anyone could get credit. Banks sent out enough credit card applications that if you had a pot belly stove in your home, you could heat your house for an entire winter using those come-ons.

We were told that a wedding ring should cost three months salary. A house payment should be 30% of your income. If GM goes, so goes the nation... and so many other lies!

This is not any President's fault. This is us! We are pigs! We pretend to live in some disposable society with disposable income, disposable careers ("As soon as I win the lottery..I'm Out of here!") and disposable relationships and marriages. But there was a price to pay. Some day we would have to pay the price for all that delusional indulgence. We reached that day.

Side note: If you have lost money in the stock market and complain all is lost, you should never have invested in the market in the first place. Any real investor has diversified their portfolio into many different streams of wealth and savings. Some just saw the stock market as the 'safe casino'!

To leverage your house 20x over was cause for disaster. But we all thought we could use it as a parachute, since we were lied to and told that 'our homes were our biggest investment' and best way to create wealth. YOU are your biggest investment! How you live your life. How you relate to friends, family, even your spouse. How you were taught responsibility. It is all reflective of just what makes us and breaks us.

No one really likes bail outs, but like when a hit and run driver sideswipes your car and you have full coverage, you get that car fixed... and add that new paint job if the insurance company is looking the other way. We all have been looking the other way for quite some time.

Globally, this is a mess. But using a global example where the rich live in gated communities and crime is rampant everywhere else, Madison Ave. continues to pitch the rosier picture. We could all put a bow on that new Lexus in the driveway at Christmas! But then... even the car companies couldn't sell the lie.

What I am trying to say in this diatribe is that Obama's bailout is a mirror. We don't like the reflection. We don't like gray hair, warts and the worry lines in our reflection. We want a Madison Ave. created reflection and a Hollywood type happy ending. The only ending we are now going to get is the death of the ME Generation. We can no longer do this alone. So get your apology list out for friends and families who may get us over the hump. Get to know your neighbors and learn a few things about bartering. And applaud or reward the success and initiative of those around you who give back more than they take. The walls of the plastic world that we used to live in are now tumbling down.

Obama's message is simple. No matter how we got to this point or who brought us here... what happened was wrong. A safety net is now being constructed... Find a way NOT to use it!

(Final note - Republicans want to know... what is holding up the net? Democrats want to know... how big is the net? The rest of us want to know... just how long is the tight rope?)

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