You would have to be more than deaf, blind and unintelligent to know that America — the wonderful country I call home — is in trouble. The powers that run Wall Street have failed, victims of their own greed and graft, and now we are left to pick up the pieces (and fast) before the whole system collapses, taking us all on a ride even more exciting than the Dow. To that end, the last bastions of free, unregulated, enterprise on Wall Street have succumb to the sweet surcease of of the protections afforded by having Big Brother™ look over their shoulders. Financial institutes are becoming socialized at an alarming rate, with their past profits shared by a few but their massive debt foisted on the clueless masses for better or worse.

Just for a bit of perspective, in 2001 before all of this trouble began, the US budget was in the green with a projected surplus of $710 billion for 2009. The actuality of the matter is that we now have a $546 billion deficit and we are looking to increase that to further socialize the finance market.  It isn’t all bad, because a healthy financial market will trickle down and help to ensure a stable overall economy, but with the current Administration trying to privatize useful services for its constituents, it is hard to accept the current plans to bail out lenders and mortgage companies to create the largest subsidized housing market this side of the Atlantic.

I can’t feign too much ire at the current situation as I would like my 401k to retain some of its value, but I must express how irksome it has been to watch the Dow dive nearly 4000 points over the course of a year.  I also don’t relish the idea of the government incurring a larger deficit to help Detroit play catch-up when the whole matter could have been partly remedied by stricter regulations of fuel economy enforced over a decade ago.  When the EV1 was released on a limited basis in California, the state invested in infrastructure to make the electric vehicle more viable, only to have GM recall the cars so that they could collect dust in Arizona while awaiting their final date with a crusher.  Instead of focusing on domestic issues, our protectors have elected to pursue a futile and pointless battle in a far away land and to placate us all, we have been lavished with tax breaks, cuts and rebates.  Financial institutions were allowed to proceed, unhindered, in questionable practices that have affected more than just their home nations and to fix it all, we are starting to look a lot more like a country which many of us ridicule out of hand and without a further thought.  So while you continue to complain about socialized public services, I encourage you to look at what our government has done these past few months and at what future potential leaders plan to due and how it might affect you and yours.