geekdaddy

This is the letter I e-mailed, before the second House vote, to my congressional delegation.

Dear Congressman,

I am an Arizona Democrat, and I am opposed to the current bailout bill. That said, it is probably going to have to pass. It shouldn’t be necessary at all.
I am a responsible citizen. I take care of my family, try not to live beyond my means, and pay my bills on time. I wish the government, and Wall Street could do the same.

This bill stinks because it is a gamble. 700 billion dollars does nothing to guarantee a way out of this financial mess. I am all for lubricating the credit markets. However, this leaves me feeling like there is not much left in reserve. What if it doesn’t work?

It seems to be a hasty plan, with no new ideas, being used to clean up Wall Street’s mess at our expense. I am worried that in the rush to pass something to mollify the American consumer, Congress is taking a risk that could well undo our economy further.

How much more is the government going to have to take over? What bank will be next? Mine? Yours? How long will the government’s intervention last? Can we truly be capitalists if the government won’t let businesses fail? I have nothing against socialism, if it is done well.

This piecemeal solution in the form of a bailout, smacks of being no solution at all. It feels like a punishment. A punishment for something we the American people didn’t do. Vote your conscience on Friday. I wish you the best of luck with a very hard decision.
Yours truly,
Andrew K. Benjamin
Arizona Democrat

I hit a moment of dissonance on Monday when the stock market tanked. I didn’t really care. It seems like my life has been a little upside down since July. I got hurt, and I was denied by my corporation’s insurance carrier (I wasn’t hurt enough). Then I was rammed in a car accident that wasn’t my fault. The car was broken into two weeks after we got it back from the accident.

I had to quit my job because they reassigned my position while I was out healing from my ankle injury. My brand new HP Pavilion a6123w mega-computer blew an audio jack, and crashed. It’s now winging its way to Texas to be fixed. I guess you could say the freaking economy is the least of my worries right now!!!!! Except that on a subconscious level, it does worry me.

It worries me because I can’t work outside the home right now. Never mind that I have a blown ankle, I just can’t afford to work. My daughter’s before and after care would run 100 dollars a week. That’s 400 dollars a month. At my daycare job I was literally clearing 75 dollars a check that way. So by staying home and being a domestic warrior, I save 400 dollars standing still.

Then there is gas. I would spend about 150 dollars a month on gas, 25 dollars on lunches/snacks, not to mention the cost of car maintenance. I literally would start working again at a loss! That is what I have to thank the economy for.
Child care, in years past, was fairly bullet proof. Not today. My corporate daycare chain says they are down between twenty and forty percent at each center in the city. Lots parents have to choose between a career and staying at home. The economy seems to be making that choice for more of us than before. I know things will get better. I just hope we can all hold our breath that long.