John, Barack and populism

The bailout plan has failed.

Congress is about to try again to pass it. I am not quite sure what sense it makes to reject a bill one week and accept it the next, but that is what seems to be about to happen. To be more successful, some people suggest that they should stop calling it "bailout plan" but "rescue plan."
Power to the language!

Anyway, I don't really know if they should approve this bill or not because I don't understand much of the economy generally speaking.

There is one thing I know though. It is that both Barack and John, who both support the bailout /rescue plan are very populist about it.

They, and many others -- supporting or opposing the bill -- keep saying that Main Street -- that is the average Americans, the small businesses and their employees, the taxpayers -- should not pay for Wall Street's mistakes and greed.

This is highly hypocritical, or blind.

There is no denying that Wall Street shares a huge responsibility in the current disastrous economic crisis.
But Main Street is also responsible.

Generally speaking, Americans live way above their means. I read this morning that American cardholders have in average nine credit cards in their wallet. Americans live on credit. They buy houses they can't afford, they buy cars they can't afford, they buy huge TVs they can't afford, they have to have the last new thing, even if they can't afford it. How do they do that? They pay with plastic. That is, they pay until they can't.

I go to campus everyday. A huge number of students drive huge cars that I could not afford. All of them are not from rich families. Yet, they drive big brand new SUVs or sports cars. How do they do that? They go in debt forever.

Every other day, when I go see my daughter's soft ball game or my son's football game, I see 12 year-olds playing with their iPhone. Do they really need an iPhone at their age?

This way of life is unhealthy. It can't go on forever. People buy and buy and buy, but they don't own anything. The banks and credit companies own people's houses, cars, TVs, iPhones.

At the end of the day, the US as a whole owes so much to China that the US does not own anything.
China owns the US.

If the candidates cannot face this reality, I am not sure people are going to change their mindset.
The sad part is that even if the economy collapses, I don't think people are going to wake up and understand they need to change their way of life.
They will keep blaming Wall Street, with the blessing of their leaders.