Seems every time I turn on the TV or radio I hear the words “$700 billion dollars.” There’s a simple Q&A in The New York Times that explains in English how Wall Street got into this mess and how Main Street Americans will get them out of it.
The situation seems to change almost hourly and I’ll admit, I don’t fully understand how we got where we are today, and I don’t fully understand how we’ll get out if it. To me it’s kind of like the war. I don’t understand how we got into that mess either. Personally, I don’t have huge amounts of money invested in the volatile markets. But what little retirement money I do have saved is there. Both of our family cars are paid off, one is over seven years old. We don’t own a second home, or a boat, and with the exception of our mortgage, we don’t have any debt. Thank God. Luckily we can afford our gas, food, and home utility bills and we don’t buy things we can’t pay for with cash or savings. This is something my husband taught me after many reckless years with credit cards in my college and immediate post-college years (it was painful paying them off, but so freeing once I had)!
I can’t help but resent that taxpayers will be forced to pay for the mistakes of some greedy companies. I know it’s not that simple, but in an age of sound bites, that’s what many of us have heard. And yet imagine the alternative? A country without credit? How would we Americans function? No vacations we can’t really afford, no new clothes, no new cars, no new homes that are bigger and better than the one before.
I know credit is, for many Americans, a lifeline. People get sick, jobs are lost, kids need to go to college. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have a single year of college tuition saved for one child. Never mind four years for two. Even those who live comfortably think of credit as a safety net.
And then there are all the small businesses in this country who rely on credit every day. If small businesses are the backbone of the American economy than we all need to ensure the credit keeps flowing.
There’s an irony here that is not lost on me. All this talk of a Wall Street bailout is happening at the same time my six-year-old is coming home from school with his fundraising materials for the town’s PTO. In our town, they had to close all the school libraries (except for the high schools) because taxpayers would not approve a property tax override. In our town, we pay for the school bus, for our kids to play sports, and our kids sell everything from gift-wrap to chocolates, to pies, and candles. And the selling starts in preschool.
My son is more excited about this fundraiser than a Wall Street trader on his best day. He sees the potential to sell, sell, sell. And his eyes have the sparkle of a boy about to cash in.
“Mommy,” he tells me with pride, “if I sell 140 items I can win my very own ipod Nano.”
He’s six. Only in America.
