Serene

I watched President Obama’s speech with interest the other night, and I do have to say I felt somewhat better after listening to him. However I am experiencing, and watching, the growth of a lot of anger out here in the  (so called) heartland of the country… over the economic meltdown, and the problems that families and small business are struggling with.

And I say this as someone who lost a job at a small business due to the economic situation, and who will be losing her health insurance in just a few days. I don’t know what the government’s idea of “affordable” health care is, but on unemployment and as basically the main breadwinner in my family,  the cost would have to be no more than about $100 a month for me to even consider it. I don’t think that they can get anywhere near that cost.

There are millions of people like me all across the country. I am nearly 41 years old, have NEVER been on unemployment before, and I struggle with MULTIPLE health care issues. I am sure that I’m going to have to go off at least one medication that improves the quality of my life, and probably more.

So yes, I’m a bit angry, and people are far more angry than I am, I see and hear it every day. There are plenty of us who have played by the rules, and are losing here.  But others are even more angry. I talked to a friend last night, a retiree from GM, who is looking like she’s going to lose 1/2 of the pension she worked 25 years for. How fair is that?

I think that they should literally claw back all but, say 10% of the compensation that the people in investment banks, etc. that perpetuated this highway robbery on the country through their creation, promotion, and sale of these cobbled-together high-risk real estate notes and the “credit default swaps.” There are literally thousands of people, undoubtedly, across the country, who made a literal killing–millions of dollars–before it all fell apart.

And guess what, those people still have that money!

One of the things President Obama talked about was “bringing the people to justice” etc. at banks, etc., who deserved it and who created this mess.

President Obama, I don’t think we are talking about a few people, I think you are talking about THOUSANDS. Don’t just make an example out of a few. Find, fine, and deal with these people.

Make no mistake: at least some of them knew what they were doing (though they assert otherwise now, of course.)

Yes, we’ve got to restore trust, get lending moving again, and so on.

But the keys to the kingdom should not be handed over completely to the guys that got rich making this mess in the first place. If that is the way it goes, I’m concerned that the anger in the heartland is going to grow beyond anything anyone has ever imagined.

Bread and Circuses just aren’t likely to distract us all long enough, this time, it seems to me.

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