We are victims of our own foolishness

So who is ultimately to blame for the current financial crisis?

Ultimately, it's the borrowers, the people who got in over their heads and presumed upon the future, thinking, "I'll eventually get a raise" or "I can always refinance."

Then, when circumstances changed, they found out they couldn't pay their bills.

Maybe a few suffered some catastrophe, like a serious illness or job loss that caused them to default on their loans.

But most probably saw easy credit and homeownership (or home equity loans) as a way to make money, even though their credit was such that they had no business getting yet another loan.

And the banks were all too willing to finance these people's irresponsibility (or their naiveté), because they wanted to make lots of money off the interest on those loans for the next 30 or more years.

Then when people start to default and the economic dominoes start to fall, we scratch our heads and wonder what happened.

What happened is that we are the victims of our own foolishness and greed.

And our greed continues in the form of those who whine that they aren't getting bailed out when the government is bailing out the banks and insurance companies.

Please! We are getting bailed out. The government (via the taxpayer) is saving our backsides from another Great Depression of our own making.

If the government wants to give us another economic stimulus package, let them do it in the form of mandatory economic education for all, because we surely need it!

In Pogo's immortal words, "We have met the enemy, and he is us."

Melanie Mobley

Des Plaines