It's been an interesting day keeping abreast of the news from London whilst the G20 summit is going on. Funny seeing Twitter come into its own as everyone starts using it to keep track of events. I had to laugh when I saw a few City workers had been waving £10 notes from their windows at protestors, a little provocative but quite humorous.
Good to see the anti war and climate change protests or coming off peacefully so far, I have no problem with them. It's good people make themselves heard without having to cause trouble.
Do have a bit of a problem with people causing the fights and vandalising banks. What's the point? RBS is mostly owned by tax payers, so the same tax payers are effectively going to have to pay for the damage - if you're a tax payer involved in this you're effectively trashing your own stuff. Pretty stupid however there again the sorts of people that do cause the damage probably aren't tax payers as they don't have a job and don't want one. They're just there for the adrenalin rush of big crowds, mob mentality and the chance of letting off steam. When they wake up in the morning they'll probably feel slightly ashamed.
I wonder how many of the people protesting about the current finanical crisis really understand it. If they do really understand it maybe they should try fixing it because I'm not sure many people understand what's going on at the moment.
I've been wondering about all the blame we're putting on Banks and the Government for the current financial crisis. I don't think any government or modern banking institution would have done much different, as is evidenced from the way the crisis is a global phenomenon. Maybe this is more of a social problem and down in part to the Jo Public. I mean how many of the people protesting have maxed out credit cards they can’t pay off, 100% mortgages, remortgages, self certified mortgages they lied about, loans or other debts they can’t pay off? They didn’t necessarily have to get into so much debt and now suffer the consequences because the economic climate has changed. There’s been a ‘must buy it now’ culture for years which has meant personal debt has risen massively, and people that save up to buy something are few and far between. In fact those that save money are often penalised with taxes and bad interest rates, whereas those who go bankrupt or are in financial difficulty get payouts from the benefits system, all a bit upside down.
There’s a culture of ‘it must be someone else’s fault as it can’t possibly be mine’. People need to take more responsibility for their own actions and realise the excess of debt and financial difficulties we’re seeing at the moment are partly down to themselves.
I am by no means saying the banks and government are blameless, there lots of room for improvement and we need tighter regulation. Financial institutions are responsible for irresponsible lending, and packaging up financial products that entice people in and get them into too much debt – they made it and continue to make it all too easy sometimes, and we got too used to these products being on offer so didn’t really consider the risks too much. They also went too far with risky lending and borrowing and in the end the liquidity all dried up, which in turn really hurts those people that really need that load to keep their business going, or start a business, everything grinds to a halt.
However people need to take a look in the mirror sometimes and start spending within their means; you don’t have to buy that Xbox for your 6 year old! Some people also need to realise you can’t get something for nothing; us workers shouldn’t have to support people that have been on benefits for ages because they simply too lazy to get a job, so make up excuses about being too ill or something akin to that. Incidentally I don’t have a problem with supporting people who genuinely need it!
It’ll be interesting to see how tonight and tomorrow progress in London. I hope the government wake up to just how angry people are feeling at the moment and realise they can’t get away with the same old crap anymore – not necessarily just because of the economic situation, but for all the social, political, environmental and legal reasons that underlie people’s frustrations. MP’s need to start being a bit cleverer and stop trying to just score points and complete short term goals; there again who’d want to be an MP really? If you’re at all good you generally have some sort of quirk that the media pick on and get’s you the sack. For example Charles Kennedy was pretty promising however he got the shove as soon as the media realised he liked a drink or two, so we’re left with those such as Jacqui Smith – please can some-one get rid of her, do you really trust a person that can’t even check her own receipts and who doesn’t really obey the spirit of the law when it comes to expenses, with the Home Office?
Anyway, that’s enough of a rant, although it was quite therapeutic. I’m not saying I’m completely right, I may well be missing something, however a lot of people feel the same way. Thoughts?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
If there's one thing I've learned during the years of having one toe dipped in the world of after-sales product support, it's that the vast majority of people will never, ever admit that they are wrong.
ReplyDeleteI suspect this is a similar situation. The general public can't possibly fathom that they could be part of the problem, because it HAS to be the government, or the banks. No different to people that are absolutely, positively convinced that their computer couldn't have a problem, or that they made a user error.
People don't like to accept blame. Perhaps part of the reason behind that is the perceived situation that if you accept blame, you're instantly screwed. If a politician admits that they did something wrong, invariably it's career suicide. They don't get a chance to say 'sorry' and do better next time. Hence everyone always tries to pass the buck, resulting in nothing ever really getting fixed because we never get to the source.
But yes, I think an approach of "everyone's to blame" is about right, although I'd still put the banks and government at the top of the list. After all, they're the ones that actually said "sure, take all this money" to the people borrowing silly amounts.
Personally I've always saved up for stuff I've wanted, and if something is too expensive I've not bought it, simple as that, so the whole thing seems a bit crazed to me. :)
Harrumph. I have one or two problems with both your posts. Firstly Tarnimus, I must point out that up until fairly recently I had to get loans out of the bank to afford to pay the deposit to move into a new house as I never had enough savings, I was neither irresponsible nor overly cautious, just on my own without the benefit of family financial support.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, it is statistically proven that it is more expensive to be poor than it is to be well off. If you are on state benefits and can't afford to pay monthly direct debits since most state benefits are paid on a fortnightly basis and don't stretch that far, you are immediately paying more for your bills than joe reasonably average as they can afford to pay up front or a lump sum. If you want a loan to run a car, (which if you are poor and in a rural area you are likely to have to rather than want to do for work at least)you are unlikely to be able to get a loan with reasonable interest since you get charged more interest if you seem more risky.
And finally, the economic situation in the west influences social development, and Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher introduced monetarist economic theory which freed up the market, deregulated industry and encouraged the World Bank and IMF to create developing companies in their image. It could be said that the freedom to earn money without regulation, to spend it without checking, and to drag nations without protection along with them was irresponsible and developed the culture of greed and the urge to sustain capitalism at any cost. I'm not sure someone on benefits who never worked, whose dad never worked, whose dad never worked etc can be to blame for there not being enough to go round when greedy bastards took it all before they even got a look in.
I wasn't meaning to imply that all people who borrow money are irresponsible, as you should know. :)
ReplyDeleteAll good points, quite an interesting debate as there are so many factors involved, and everyone's personal circumstances are different. I don't know what the solutions are and I'm pretty sure I don't know all the contributing factors that caused this. People do need to be constructive about solutions rather than just pursuing a culture of blame though.
ReplyDeleteI still need to win the lottery though, or my RBS shares to quadruple in value.
Sorry, I can get a bit passionate when I think about the potential for disaster that became a disaster. I saw a really good explanation about how the bubble will one day burst. Will dig it out..
ReplyDelete