I have a question...

I keep hearing that the government shouldn't help those people who took out mortgages they knew they couldn't pay, but yet, I haven't heard many people mention that we shouldn't bailout the mortgage companies and banks that loaned them the money.

Here's my question: Doesn't the blame lie with all of them? If I go to a bank to take out a loan and the bank knows that there is no way in hell I'm ever going to be able to pay it back, don't they have some obligation to their employees and stockholders to not give me the loan? While I hold some blame for accepting a loan I know I can't pay back, I wouldn't have the loan if the bank or mortgage company didn't grant it.

So, who is to blame and why is it that I have to pay for this mess because I don't have a loan I can't pay for.

Anyone?

God Bless

Off the Top Of My Head

Maybe, I'm having these thoughts because my knee hurts. Maybe, I'm having these thoughts because I'm doped up on the generic version of vicodin. Maybe, it's because it's 3:20 in the morning and I'm unbelievably NOT tired! But, anyway, here's some thoughts...

1. I really don't want to talk about, read about or hear about that nutcase woman in California who had six kids she wasn't supporting and somehow was allowed to have 8 embryos implanted in her. I hear she wants a reality TV show. Any station that signs her up deserves to go out of business. Let's not encourage irresponsible parenting anymore than we've all ready had with "Jon and Kate plus 8" and "17 and Counting".
2. Speaking of the moron in California, just where the hell did she get the money? Does welfare pay for that? And, while I don't believe in controlling anyone's right to reproduce, shouldn't there be a set limit to how many embroyos can be implanted at one time?
3. Joaquin Phoenix -- I don't know him, nor do I know a lot about him, but his performance as Johnny Cash in "Walk the Line" was amazing. His singing was terrific. Now, I read he wants to be a rap star and he's giving up acting. I can see wanting to give up acting, but becoming a rap star? Please. White guys should never rap -- they don't have that whatever it is black guys have. It never sounds right -- at least not to me. And, besides, throughout music history, white people have borrowed (stolen) from black music, can't we just let them have something of their own without ruining it? Joaquin, if you want to have a music career, I'll buy your album, just pick a genre other than rap, please.
4. I'm not thrilled with the stimulus package. I think too many concessions were made for the Republicans and then not enough of them came over to make it truly bipartisan. The $13.00 a week really isn't going to make that much of a difference in my life. I'd rather know that more of my fellow citizens will be able to keep their jobs. Also, I think we could've given more than 200 million (I'm pretty sure that's the figure I heard) to infrastructure.
5. What the hell is wrong with corporate America? Laying off more Americans is NOT going to make your profit margins get any bigger. For every laid off employee, that's money that isn't going into the economy, which means that's less money flowing to corporate America, which will lower profit margins. Dummies.
6. The true bailout should've been for homeowners who still have mortgages. For singles who earned less than $70,000 per year and married couples who earned less than $140,000 a year. Instead of the money going into the coffers of the banks and leaving homeowners hanging and the banks not lending it out again, the mortgages could've been paid off -- good and bad. Personally, I'm going to turn 200,000 miles on my Suzuki Vitara. While I love my Suzie, if I had my $750.00 mortgage payment in my checking account, I could afford the Chevy Malibu I fell in love with when I drove one for a month. So, the money would roll back into the American economy. A perfect plan? Maybe not, but the TARP bailout isn't even close to perfect and it hasn't saved one job.
7. Am I the only American who could give a rat's butt about American Idol? I don't care who wins, I don't care who gets kicked off and frankly, quit telling me about it. I have a life that doesn't leave room for most reality TV shows -- I'm saying most because I'm not sure where Dominick Dunne's "Power, Privilege and Justice" and "Forensic Files" fall, but I love those shows. I can hear you saying, "But you make time for 'The Ghost Whisperer'". Yes, yes, I do, but I watch TV to escape reality, not have screaming morons and bad singers shoved in my face.
8. Can we ban Reality TV? Haven't we gone too far? How much longer will it be before a real version of "The Running Man" becomes a reality?

Wow! That's a lot off my chest!

God Bless and Good night or, I guess, since it's now almost four am, good morning.

Layoffs...

To clarify this blog entry, I'm only referring to American companies with American citizens...

I was reading an article about a company that is about to layoff 15% of their workforce because they only posted an $0.08 profit per share. The company spokesman said that they owe it to their investors to turn a higher profit. Really, because what about those people who believed in that company and contributed to that $0.08 share profit -- don't they owe something to them?

In this broken economy, I propose that any company that shows any profit or even just breaks even that lays off employees simply to push their profit margin higher is unAmerican. Every employee that is laidoff is a hardworking American citizen and that hardworking American citizen puts their paycheck into our American economy. And, when that American citizen loses his or her job, they don't spend as much money in the American economy, which means another company's profit margin goes down and another company lays off employees and the cycle begins again.

I have to say I'm a little disappointed at the idea that companies would be given tax cuts. These are the same companies that seem to think they don't have any obligation to anyone besides investors. Eventually, as long as employees are considered to be nothing more than a drain on money rather than the valuable resources they are -- companies won't have to worry about their investors, because the companies will eventually not exist. Any company that has laid off any employees in the last year doesn't deserve a tax cut.

There's a story I heard years ago about Johnson Wax. Apparently, during the depression Johnson Wax NEVER LAID OFF ONE EMPLOYEE. They cut their hours, but Mr. Johnson believed that he owed his employees something to keep the company and the employees going. I'm sure that Johnson Wax must've lost money during the depression, but the Almighty Dollar wasn't more important than helping their employees put food on the table. It's really too bad that men like that don't exist anymore.

Years ago I started telling friends that as long as companies see employees as liabilities instead of assets things were going to get bad and unfortunately, I was right.

Right now, I'm lucky, I still have my job, but I have to wonder when the axe will fall and my company decides I'm a liability and not an asset.

God Bless