absent.canadian

Like most Americans, I’m distressed over the economic news this week – but perhaps for a slightly different reason.

I may be one of the few who doesn’t put the blame squarely on Wall Street and irresponsible politicians.  Yes, they have a role, but I think there’s a far more responsible party that needs to shoulder the blame for this.

It’s regular, ordinary Americans.

And my rationale is simple: we’re in this economic crisis largely because of bad debt.  And a large percentage of that bad debt was accrued by the “Main Street” folks the presidential candidates keep trying to appeal to.

It’s no wonder we have corporate leaders and politicians who spend like drunken sailors on shore leave; that’s the general spending pattern of most Americans.  The bigger house, bigger car, supersize-me mentality is epidemic, and Americans love to borrow money to fund this grotesque lifestyle.

Case in point: when I bought my house almost four years ago, my mortgage broker laughed at me for buying such a modest house.  Her perspective was simple: “you can afford more – why wouldn’t you want a larger house?”  Granted, casa Canadian is a modest home in a modest neighborhood by anyone’s measure, but it’s also a home I knew we (back in the day when it was “we”) could easily afford, even if one of us lost our job.  The chances were remote, but we wanted to make sure we wouldn’t lose our house if something happened.

Zoom ahead four years.  I’m still comfortably living in that house and still making the mortgage payments despite being in a single-income household (due to the breakdown of my marriage – completely unrelated to the economic crisis).  Had we bought something more expensive, I probably couldn’t have afforded to keep it.

Cheap credit has extended the idea of “living within our means”.  That’s fine until the credit market dries up; ergo, the crisis we’re seeing today.

Wall Street and irresponsible corporate officers will get their share of the blame, but change needs to start at the grassroots level.  Looking to our politicians to “fix” the problem is like looking to Visa or Mastercard for a solution to your ridiculously high credit card bill.  Since they’re in the business of selling you credit, they’ll probably raise your credit limit, pat you on the head and tell you to spend more money … when you know that the real solution is to stop spending so much money.

Of course, the political candidates can’t look the country squarely in the eyes and say “C’mon America – you’re being a bunch of dumbasses.  Stop spending money like it grows on trees and try saving a little.  Pay down your debts and don’t get into hock so deeply.”  Instead, they’ll cought up a few hundred billion they don’t have and pretend that it’s going to make a difference.

And as long as stupid people crowd around stages to listen to politicians croon about how they have the perfect solution; as long as they drive there from their McMansions in their gas-guzzling SUV’s; as long as they go out after for a double cheeseburger, a crate of french fries and a half-gallon of Coke; and as long as they ridiculously sue their HMO when they keel over from a heart attack and realize they can’t afford proper healthcare – only then, perhaps, will they realise that the enemy has always been right there, staring back at them in the mirror.