A note to the President

I am an average citizen that cares about his country, I care about freedom and liberty, and I feel that our country took form as a place where dreams could be followed. That has changed, many people today are not as concerned about their indiviual families and dreams as about the decisions being made by government. The US constitution was written to establish a government to protect the people. Please, protect us, physically. Freedom and the pursuit of dreams will give us jobs.

Fargone

I have so many questions I would love to ask US (speaking to our society and not individually)! Have we become so communist that we want to 'extra tax' a group of companies because they are profitable(big oil)? When did the political left sway so far as to desire universal heathcare(all democratic presidential candidates)? Have we forgotten what it really means to be an American; to believe that anything is possible with enough work and desire(unions and lottery)? Are we so lazy, are we so hooked on easy money that we vote to give it to ourselves(income tax rebate)? Has Texas' Robin Hood made communists(Texas' Robin Hood public school reform)? Have we not read Ayn Rand in all her capitalist, individualist glory(Atlas shrugged/The Fountainhead)? Why do we strike for money(many union examples)? Is it because we lack the drive to earn something more because we deserve it? Can we truly be so easily influenced by unscientific, unrealistic media campaigns(global warming whose name has subtly changed to climate change)? Does the person in the editing booth really make the story?

I am so tired of whiners! And that statement makes me a whiner, which annoys me even more!

What is wrong with us? What is so bad about our lives? Why can't we be happy? I will answer for you: What is wrong with you? You are impatient and unsatisfied. You are prideful and unjustified. You have lost your moral compass. And you don't know which way to go and thus you go nowhere. What is so bad about your life? Nothing. You have just forgotten to appreciate what you have received because you are constantly looking too far ahead to notice what is all around you. You don't appreciate your daily breath and thus you pollute. You don't appreciate any cover over your head and thus you go in debt or envy for something better. You don't appreciate your meal and thus you waste. Your lack of appreciation makes your life bad. Why can't you be happy? You only think about yourself. You aren't happy because you mis-take your roles in life. All of us fit in society like an individual piece of a puzzle. When you don't know your bounds and limitations, when you misrepresent the bounds and limitations of others, when you try to fit into someplace that is wrong for you, you are unhappy. Please, be happy and realize I am talking about everyone except you.

Buying a house

If you have never been so stressed out that you wanted to jump into an icy river to relax, try buying a home. About half of the people I know own their own home, and to look at them, you'd only see normal people. But lurking underneath that facade of calm composure, there exists a deep well of what some call "experience." (That is just a fancy word for saying, they have made lots of mistakes.) I never imagine buying a home would be so complicated or so expensive. A few months ago when the US was in meltdown mode because a few billion dollars were lost in bad mortgages, I thought, "how could those people have ever dreamed of borrowing so much money under such terrible terms, and why would a lender loan those people so much money in such a sly way when the reality was that they wouldn't be able to afford their loan?" Now I look at it with open eyes. Here are my reasons why lenders and borrowers are in trouble.
1. Borrowers are brainwashed into the need to own a home.
2. The nitty-gritty of a home mortgage quite confusing.
3. The realtors, loan originators, brokers, appraisers, and anyone I haven't though of, all make money at the time of transaction; they aren't in it for the "long-haul." Once they have their money, they are gone.
4. Money in the financial world is relative. They talk in numbers, not dollars.
5. Real estate was one of the last places people can find money for nothing.

There are four ways to get money. First people look to get money by producing or manufacturing something (or owning an asset that producing something.) Second, they look to get money as a reward for brokering/producing a transaction (i.e. sales.) Third, they get money by borrowing it. And fourth, they let others borrow money for a price. In the US, we got tired of producing things, are getting beat by others at brokering deals, ran out of money for others to borrow, and now we are the borrowers. Ahh... the new American dream.