Thadeus Thornton III

A Stairway to Retail Heaven (Part 2)

I agree that many people live beyond their means and save less than they should. That being said, many people also put their trust into the "social contracts" that the finance, real estate, investment, and other so called professionals promote and sell. Where was truth in advertising and sound advice from the financial gurus? It couldn't be Madison Ave. advertising and the desire for investment bankers to get big bonuses here that might be a little more at fault also, could it?
Why all the criticism of the American public when their are many average working people out there who put their trust in bankers who say they can afford a loan, or sales people promoting add on sales. You assume all people have financial wisdom and are educated enough to know that they are being "sold" something they should not buy. There are more "indians" out their doing the mundane work of society, then "cheifs" who are sophisticated and savy in the workings of finance, politics, and the world in general. If you are the later, perhaps you lost sight of this, or worse, look down on people who are working so hard to just provide for a family that they don't have time to get savy. Or they just don't have the academic talents and abilities of the rest of you. If you drive a Mercedes, or even aspire too, maybe that's part of your perception problem.
Finally, I have always put money away and saved regularly. I always tried to instruct my kids to live well within their means. I also put away in a few IRAs, 401K, and 401B plans. Fortunately, I also have a defined pension plan and am retired. Anyone who thinks having just a 401K, 401B, IRA etc will positively provide a decent retirement for them may be mistaken. Part of working for many companies after WWII included the provision of PART of a persons compensation being put into a defined pension plan. We have laws to protect and establish levels for those plans. It worked. Are 401K's and IRA's based on stock market raiding (1999 to 2001) and mismanaged mutual funds working so well? I don't see it. I have had some of those since 1982, and if I depended solely on them for my retirement guess where that would put me. If I had depended completely on a 401k,IRA, etc, I would be in sad shape today wouldn't I?
Perhaps more than a few writers here and elsewhere want to believe that personal investment should be sound and viable, and therefore trustworthy for a retirement. This world is too full of opportunists that have ways of letting the stock market get pumped up, and then raid the cookie jar. Maybe we do need some actual regulations that stay in place. But not in my life time. We are/were a nation of consumers. To excess I am afraid. And business loved it and encouraged it. Now there is crying going on about people actually saving more for a change. So it was greed and opportunism that got us here. Yes, some of it individual and personal. But largely egged on by a greedy business world.

Recent Policy Decisions and a Greater Depression

One thing is for sure. This economic crisis is on it's way to provide a so called "level playing field" for everyone. Back in 1999 to 2000 when all the rich Big Boys raided the pockets of plain folks who pumped up the stock market with their 401K plan contributions, the Big Boys walked away with billions collectively and now got burned by their own greed in real estate speculation and "creative financial products".
No worries for them though. You can bet there are plenty of Big Boys out there creating "contracting" companies to get their hands on President Obama's stimulus money. That's a big reason why things look bad. Little or no checks or balances to fence off unscrupulous opportunists who claim to be making lemon aid out of lemons; but are really out to line their pockets with public money and provide little , if anything, for it. Don't believe it? Look at Haliburton and how they cashed in on "support" infrastructure for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. $100 to do a soldiers laundry. $1,000 a day per diem charges to Uncle Sam for "contract agents".
Well, maybe we've learned by now. Then again . . .