Postrelevant...

I've been sitting here for the last 10 minutes thinking of at least one meaningful subject to write about today and I'm drawing a blank. I guess I'm not too superstitious and writer's block (to me) is a something that I haven't experienced too much of in my life. Although even thinking the words let alone writing them down seems to be on par with talking about a "shank" in golf. Whose other utterance would send shivers down the spin of any hapless golfer.

And maybe not everyday is an interesting one. One that is full of piss and vinegar of pent up emotions stirring around political injustices or freedoms denied. Or maybe those days when blogging seems to be more of a concise lecture about subjects few people actually find interest in. Or at this point in their lives, they just don't have the energy to deal with.

Like the Dow dropping another 400+ points today bringing the NYSE to around 8300 again. Which points to fears in the market because retailers aren't selling enough crap this year to make their stock a worthwhile investment. And not that anyone really cares of Macy's makes their projections - I didn't know what they were to begin with so missing them is much like telling me that another star in the sky has a new name given it by their boyfriend as a cheesy gift.

Or that mortgages are in default because (surprise) people bought too much house than they could afford and now are crushed into eviction (either self imposed or forced). Or that Capitol Hill is authorizing another outrageous amount to bail out some other business that really has no reason to be bailed out only in that their rich Uncle Sam has deep pockets or more than likely his own sovereignty to print as much money as he likes. Seriously, every time the government speaks of bailing out some other company for billions of dollars - does it even register now? It's like a money tree has been doling it out like a kid in a candy store (with his mom's credit card).

I worry that the reality of all of this is really coming soon. That the government can't just keep bailing out companies who they fear will cause irrevocable harm if they fail and unemployment skyrockets. In a way, I kind of want it to happen.

That our nation has been complacent for so long and has expected life to be handed to them. That for millions of people, the idea of a free society isn't tied up into what handbag you bought on 5th Ave, but that we all must take responsibly for our actions.

Businesses take risks - households take risks. It's part of life. We hedge our individual risks from knowledge of the situation and off of common sense. All those euphemisms that your mother taught you - "if it looks too good to be true, it is" or "what you see is what you get'" or my favorite "if it walks like a duck, talks like a duck and swims like a duck - it's a duck".

But as Voltaire stated in his native Francais: "Le sens commun n'est pas si commun (Common sense is not so common)". And sometimes people need to learn through trial and harsh error.

I worry that in the next 3 years will be very stressful. With many of our friends suffering through economic issues of either lost jobs or being called on business decisions they made along the way that just caught up with them. I worry that our perspective of the future will be rather bleak for the time to come and our children will see us struggle.

The deal is that those decisions made by our leadership over the last 60 years have finally been called on the carpet. No more deferral for some poor bloke to pay for in the future. The future is now and the piper needs to be paid (look at all of these wonderful euphemisms!).

This time will pass and in the next decade things will have turned around. But for us as a nation to make progress into a positive direction, we need to have our teeth kicked in from time to time. And all of us, every single household will bear some of that price that will have to be paid to set our collective house in order. Massive programs will have to be launched and the status quo will no longer exist. We simply can't afford to continue on in the same manner we've done for the last 60 years.