The new billion dollar rescue package misses the entire point. This problem in society – the reason why we need a billion dollar rescue package – is because we refuse to take the blame. Instead of seeing our own mistakes in spending and learning from them, people see this problem as something bad that “just happened.” However, not everything in the economy can be attributed to an individual’s fault. For example, it is not the fault of an individual if he is now one of the many standing in the unemployment line due to job cuts. But we cannot ignore the problem in individual spending for those of us who are guilty. To borrow a line from Lily Allen’s song, The Fear, she sings “I am a weapon of massive consumption. It’s not my fault it’s how I’m programmed to function.” This line sounds more and more like the attitude of the American public that led us to this mess in the first place.

To further compound the problem, we rely on our quick-fix mentality. The people in American society today expect everything instantaneously. The new bailout was barely put up for debate before the American public sees it in action. Instead of accepting that a mess that took a long time to make will take a long time to clean up, we want to wash our hands of it and be done. The bill was shoved quickly through Congress and signed. In reality, we should be acting with discipline and careful steps. If there is a mess in your house after a party, you are careful where you step. Why is it that Americans do not want to recognize this will take time?
This all leads to the next line of thought that any logical person will take: where is this money going to come from? A bank or individual cannot print money without something solid to back it up. If they do, the money decreases in value. If our own government is in debt, then they do not have the cash flow to give money to institutions desiring a bailout. This would leave two options: increase revenue or go outside of American borders. While I am not going to get into the problems of going outside ourselves for income, I will concentrate on increasing revenue. The government does this mainly in the manner of increasing taxes. I personally do not like to see my taxes increased, as my paycheck is decreased. Even without increasing taxes just on individuals, there are not many options left. We could always tax those big bad businesses who we just happen to blame for the problem in the first place. While I do not deny some businesses and CEO’s have mismanaged and abused the trust of the workers, scaring off businesses with higher taxes will not help anyone. If I were running a business, I would look to cut cost. Some cost of my business is in taxes. If I can pay lower taxes outside of the American borders, I will move my business. By moving my business, I have just laid off American workers, which puts them back in the unemployment line where we started. Fun stuff, isn’t it?
I honestly do not know how this crisis will be fixed. However, I do firmly believe that if we do not reevaluate our attitudes, we will soon find ourselves in the same disarray if we ever do get back on solid ground. We must also realize that a quick fix is not a solution. Sometimes it is better to let a fire burn itself out instead of adding more fuel to the flame by throwing another bailout into the mix. The government should consider more carefully how we got here and how to prevent the problem – not how to make the American public believe we can really rescue them by instant gratification.