With Individual Freedom Comes Individual Consequences. Why Are We in This Financial Mess?

With a 700 billion dollar bailout, people losing their homes because they can't pay their mortgage and people crying for financial relief, I sit back and sigh.

It's not to say that I haven't lost something in this economic recession, but I haven't lost everything. I couldn't afford to buy myself a house, so I didn't. I couldn't afford a new car, instead I favored the old faithful 2002 Honda Accord, not exactly the chicest ride, but it drives. I neither have the time or the money to begin my home business, so I haven't taken the risk. I couldn't afford certain luxuries, so I don't have them. With the news showing the desperate faces of people who are about to lose their homes I have to ask "Why the hell did you buy that home when you couldn't afford it?"

At what point did home ownership become a right as opposed to a privilege?

While we're at it, at what point did a failing business become the responsibility of the American people? The consequence of capitalism is that you have an infinite ability to succeed. You also have an infinite ability to fail. The right to succeed and fail is equipotential.

Bailing out a failing business is not the responsibility of the government or the American people. It goes against the basic principles of capitalism and a free market.

As cruel as it might sound, there is a reason why banks are failing. They made the horrible decision of pushing bad loans on people who could not afford them. The consequence of that isn't hard to figure out. People took those loans. The consequences for them, the people that took loans that are more expensive than they could afford, is also not hard to predict. These were bad economic decisions made by businesses and individuals. Why on earth should I need to bail them out? They had the freedom to make those bad decisions, now I give them the freedom to fail.

While people believe that it means people will no longer be able to get loans, I say this! You never need a loan. It is possible to buy a reliable car with cash. It is possible to even buy a home with cash, though that's a little more difficult.

There are two ways to get over an economic slump. One can make more money, or one can live on less. Expecting hand outs from the government should not be one of them.

As for jobs - Just because people cannot find the same paying job that they had before does not mean that they cannot find a job! At one point or another, my household income was slashed in half (divorce) but I still had the same amount of bills! Getting two lower paying jobs is always an option. Is it hard? Yes, but no one said that life would ever be easy.