Analysis for Critical Thinkers

Sometimes I am convinced that even Supreme Court Justices think that our Founding Fathers, via the U.S. Constitution were really saying that “everything is someone else’s fault.”

A man buys a house and some time later learns that, due to the current market, his house is now worth less than what he owes on his mortgage. He is what they now call “underwater.” He now has a few choices. He can 1) Keep making the payment that he had legally agreed upon for his house. 2) Try to sell his house and take the loss. 3) Walk away from the house and let the bank foreclose – but who cares if he didn’t put that much down on the house to begin with – no great loss! (Thanks U.S. Big Government and the “right” to own a house. ) 4) Wonder why somebody else doesn’t bail him out.

Astonishingly, what we see happen is that these unfortunate home-investors come a-lookin’ for our wallets. (I know, I am evil and greedy – which is another issue —  but really, I’m worried enough about payin’ for my own place, let alone yours, my unfortunate friend and countryman!)

No fair! Someone else should pay. There should be a law forcing rich people to buy me my house. Why are there people who make more than me ‘cuz it’s no fair! The government should make the banks let me have my house for nothing. I know rich people who have houses! How come my neighbor gets to have a house and a new car when I can’t even afford my house! Why don’t politicians give me money to bail me out, what else do we need them for? I’m a hard working guy who well, right now, isn’t hard working because the government hasn’t made me a job yet. I know it’s all Bush’s fault and all but come on Obama, what about my stimulus check? True, the lender had to legally tell me what my monthly payment would be – like I wouldn’t’ a-asked otherwise. He even told me that if I didn’t make the payment that they would take MY house back! These greedy predatory lenders who only care about making money to pay for their own damned houses and pay their own greedy bills! Someone else should make less so that I can have more! This is America!

Look, it is no laughing matter when your house is in danger of being taken. But they don’t take it if you pay for it! How would anyone think it was any other way? I do wish though that whenever I made a bad investment that Big Government would make somebody else pay for me too.

How about  you buy stock in a company that you are hoping is going to make good profits. But the stock goes down instead! No fair. These crooked Wall Street slime! If any stock that we buy ever goes down, the Government makes your neighbor pay your money back. This is the richest country in the world. Why should I ever have to take a loss?

I go to Las Vegas hoping to make it big. Since Big Government hasn’t seen fit to make me a job, my last resort is to go to a resort and bet big. I deserve to have money! But I lose big instead. We need a Gambling Loss Recovery Bill that forces evil successful people to pay me my money back. Plus. it’s not my fault anyway that I was driven to this. Why do resort owners get to have big cars when I had to take a bus to the casino?

Why should I spend money on cable television and internet service. Do you ever see how much those companies make? Hey, send some my way. Why should I have to pay when those guys all have fancy clothes. I have a right in this day and age to have cable TV because what if I want to look for a job? And there’s no reason why my cell phone shouldn’t be free. Those phone companies have been making money for years. When is it my turn?

And do you see how much those doctors and medicine companies make? Until my doctor has to move into an apartment, I see no reason why I should have to pay him. Boo hoo. Now he sees how the rest of us are forced to live. How much money does one man need anyway? These greedy doctors. And those medicine manufacturers. Why should a single pill cost that much when they are so small – what a ripoff! They should be paying me for being a customer and using their stupid product. How come the government doesn’t make it a law saying that they have to give us free medicine, those evil cheapskate greedy medicine snobs. I could wear a stupid lab coat and look in a microscope all day you lazy do-nothings.

The problem people, is NOT that we cannot afford to pay our bills — that has been happening throughout history. The problem is looking outside of ourselves for a solution. Is this the result of a socialist nanny state? Envy and jealousy that somebody else makes more than you do and that you are owed the difference. Where else and when else in history have people expected that their financial burdens are the responsibility of someone else? This attitude has pervaded Big Government as well — who is apparently quite happy to take on the role of bail-out provider for the masses. But with money from where? And from whom?

One can see that the problem originates in Big Government’s vain attempts to continue to try to run and to try to “save” the economy that make the economy further collapse into the abyss. It’s trying to make things “fair” that is messing things up and it is believing that Big Government has that role in the first place that dooms us.

A man is worried about the increased number of burglaries occurring in his neighborhood lately. Some of the break-ins have even been committed when the residents were at home.  The thieves have typically kicked in a rear door or broken a basement window to gain entry into the house. Having a wife and kids, the man wishes to take some action toward helping protect his family. He decides that he should perhaps get a deadbolt for the rear door as well as an alarm system to monitor the most common means of entry. Since he does not have an unlimited amount of money or resources, he looks to make the best investment in areas that are most likely to give him increased security for his family and himself.

The homeowner decides to consult a security “expert” for advice. “Expert” is in quotes because that is what this person calls himself. The homeowner has no idea whether this person is actually an expert, but some certificates and diplomas are displayed on the wall of the security firm office and the “expert” speaks of all of the schooling and experience he has received.

“I would like to re-enforce my rear door with a better lock and perhaps even a stronger door. I would also like to get alarm sensors on some of my windows, particularly the ones on the side of my house that is not readily visible from the street, ” the homeowner says, realizing that it is likely that an attempt may be made by the “expert”  to try to persuade him to spend more money to strengthen all of his doors and place alarm sensors on every single door and window in his house.

The response by the expert surprised the homeowner.

“What makes you think that a burglar will come in through a door or window?”

The homeowner, momentarily embarrassed by his own possible naivety responds ,”Well, that is historically the way burglars in general and this latest band of neighborhood criminals in particular have gained entry into houses.”

The expert replies, “That is a very dangerous policy! What if burglars find out that everybody is re-enforcing their doors and alarming their windows? They might try other ways to get in. What if they decide to dig a tunnel under your house and enter from underneath? I think that you should buy underground sensors. What if they come with a giant crane and lift up your whole house and steal it? You should buy crane detectors. What if they cut a hole through your roof and come in through your attic? You should buy attic sensors. What if a helicopter lowers a ladder to your second-floor window and they come in that way? You should buy helicopter detectors.”

A skeptical look on the homeowner’s face is apparently enough to make the smug-faced security expert pull out a yellowed newspaper article about some burglar somewhere that chopped a hole in a wall at some point in history and squeezed between the studs to drag out a color television set.

The homeowner, not being a security expert, is doing mental math about how much all of these seemingly frivolous measures must cost on top of all of the measures that he originally wanted to get for his house.

“You shouldn’t get a better door or any window sensors at all for your basement windows,” the security expert reports, “Other burglars in your area may wind up feeling sad that they are being unfairly profiled in such a stereotypical way. These criminal acts in your neighborhood are not the acts of “true burglars” who are a peaceful bunch of misunderstood gentlemen who deserve our understanding. What will the burglar world think of us if we target them as criminals?”

“But how useful will your suggested methods be in stopping burglaries at my house?” the homeowner asks.

The security expert, with all of his degrees, replies “The question is not whether the means you take are successful, the question is whether the means are fair — and more importantly, how we are perceived by the criminals and by the rest of the world, like France.”

The homeowner, duped by the so-called expert, spends all of his money on a security system that even the “expert” knows will not stop a burglary approximately 100% of the time. It is of little consolation to the homeowner and his family that this new expensive alarm system will stop that one guy somewhere who did at one point in fact, use a crane to steal a whole house. At least the family can sleep at night knowing that no criminals were offended.