Everyone forgets why we are in this recession in the first place. Its quite simple, yet you NEVER hear it mentioned on the news or Glenn Beck faggot or anywhere else.
The Income to Inflation ratio is not proportionate, and has been steadily declining since the 80's.
In 1983, $25,000 a year income was a good job, you could afford a house and probably 2 car payments semi-comfortably, with retirement to boot.
Can you afford any of this in 2010 on $25k a year? I think not. When the system does work, it works well. But that guy doing the $25k a year job in 1983, suddenly shows up in 2010 doing the same job making the same amount of money (if a tad more) tries to afford any of this it is next to impossible. Generally, the price of comsumer items has risen with inflation, wheras our income has NOT risen in proportion to inflation. The Govt solution to this problem, as they became aware of it in the late 90's with teh .com crash, was to increase the minimum wage. This is all great and wonderful for Caleb working a MickeyD's, but did that guy working in the plant see the same kind of increase on his paycheck? Did the guy running a small business in a small town pay all his employees more because the low-guy on the paycheck got an increase that he was forced to give? Hell no. If anything small-employers did NOT give middle payscale employees a raise so they could ofset the cost of paying the low guy his minimum wage increase.
So here we are in 2010, underpaid for our skills, and overcharged for things like insurance and basic necessities, yet sheep america is determined that everyone deserves a house and the best newest tv/sound system, whilst making $10/an hour.
The reason the housing market crashing brought all this about is because teh banks realised early on that the prices of homes were rising faster than the incomes of people. They had no control over this, so they did what they could at the time to get themselves by, and that was make it easier for everyone to afford a home. Granted they didnt want this to cut into their profits, so they simply lowered their standards for applicants.
More or less, everyone is to blame. But until america pulls it head out of its ass nothing is going to get better. Our economy grew too fast, and everyone was so concerned about maximizing profits that they didnt see the brick wall we were headed for til it was too late.
I really have no solution to provide, it just pisses me off that we have such ignorant, self-centered people running our country who are incapable of seeing the blatant truth behind the obvious problems.