It can be argued that we all brought this on because our entire culture is spoiled and lives above our means etc etc – TRUE! But the Wall St. and Capital Hill people are just as guilty for pushing this downstream, and they’re putting us on the hook to fix it with our tax money. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand I don’t want the big dogs to fail and finish tanking our economy, but at the same time I don’t want them doing whatever the hell they want with all that money. I’ve wondered – what if they just divide all that money among taxpayers and let them use it to catch up their debt? There would inevitably be a bunch of idiots that would go buy a big screen TV instead of make their house payment. But how is that any different than these big companies planning to pay fat bonuses at the end of the year. They can say the bailout money isn’t being used for bonuses but that’s no different than the citizen saying they need government money to make their house payment but they’re not using the money to buy the big screen TV on their Christmas list. How stupid does it get? Our government is once again dropping the ball.

All this thinking has me wondering – just how much is $700 Billion? I have 3 kids who are going to have to help pay this off and it isn’t their fault. I’ll take some fault for the current situation – I’ve lived beyond my means in the past, and I’m willing to make up for it. I can’t fix the whole problem myself but I’m willing to do my part (everyone’s gonna have to anyway). How long do you think it would take to pay off the $700 Billion if we all shared the responsibility equally? I’m talking about everyone who lives in our economy.

If my calculations are correct – if 300 million of us dug deep and sacrificed hard for just 4 years we could completely pay off the $700 Billion. All it would take is money we’re already wasting probably every day or no doubt over the course of a week, or at the very least every month – even for the ‘poor’ folks. I’m talking skipping one small-size value meal at McDonalds per month, or just skipping the value-size upgrade a couple of times a month. If 300 million of us would just commit to paying $5 per month for 4 years that would be a little more than $700 Billion. I’d be willing to pay my 4 yrs worth right now if I knew it would be handled right to fix the problem. You know what – go ahead and sign me up for $25 per month on that plan. I beleive a lot of folks would sign up with me if we could go ahead and clear everybody’s credit card debt too.

BUT (that’s right – I have more conditions) – I want to see a stop to the over-spending that got us here in the first place. Everybody who gets a penny of debt relief doesn’t qualify for any credit cards for the next five years. Fair enough? I’ll include myself in that group because WHEN I LEARNED MY LESSON ABOUT THIS I STOPPED USING CREDIT!!! I haven’t had any new credit in 5 years. Living within our means – imagine that. But like I said – I have failed in the past so I’m willing to help make it up – even more so than most – because my children deserve it.