Alwin wrote:
The thing tht got me is congress passing a bill that punished banks who didn't take risky loans....


I'd like to know what bill you're talking about here.

What do I blame for this mess? In a word, greed.

--The banks lobbied for deregulation so they could invest in financial instruments that increase profits.
--New, insanely complex instruments were developed to generate even MORE profits.
--The resulting well-greased mortgage industry went nuts, and made lots of unscrupulous/subprime loans.
--Joe American, intoxicated by how much house they qualified for, grabbed up some seriously nutty mortgages... without considering their ability to make the payments. Many others simply sucked all the equity out of their existing homes and spent it.
--Average CEO pay is now 275x that of the lowest-paid workers.

From top to bottom, the motive is the same. Increasingly, we equate money with happiness. And since we all want to be really happy, we have to have lots and lots of it.

Nothing will change until and unless we wean ourselves away from that thinking.

Oh, and am I better off than my parents? Absolutely not. I'm far poorer than they were.