Who's Online
We have 157 guests and 2 members online
Business News Feed
|
Reuters: Business News
|
| Reuters.com is your source for breaking news, business, financial and investing news, including personal finance and stocks. Reuters is the leading global provider of news, financial information and technology solutions to the world's media, financial institutions, businesses and individuals. |
|
-
Citigroup eyes options including merger
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup Inc lost more than one-quarter of its market value on growing worries over whether it has enough capital to withstand billions of dollars of potential...
-
Fed's Bullard: U.S. spending slump to sap 2009 growth
EVANSVILLE, Indiana (Reuters) - St Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said on Thursday that financial market turmoil has collapsed U.S. consumer confidence and this would weigh on growth well...
-
Oil falls over $1 on demand worries
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - U.S. crude oil dropped more than $1 a barrel on Friday, falling for sixth straight sessions as more distress for the global economy threatened to eat further...
-
NY City securities workforce down to Sept 2005 level
NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City's securities companies shed 16,000 employees in October, measured on a year-over-year basis, pushing the total work force down to a level last seen...
-
Democrats demand U.S. Big 3 offer survival plan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic congressional leaders, seeking to salvage a bailout of the Big Three automakers, demanded executives provide a business survival plan in exchange for their support of up...
-
S&P dives to lowest level since 1997
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks plunged yet again on Thursday, as a frantic flight from risk prompted by investors' deepening economic fears drove the benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 index...
-
Marsal to lead team of over 600 at Lehman
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bryan Marsal, currently chief restructuring officer of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc , will take over as chief executive of the bankrupt investment bank after the close...
-
Paulson defends handling of U.S. financial crisis
SIMI VALLEY, California (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson on Thursday defended his handling of the financial crisis but refused to say whether any further help will be offered to...
-
Dell profit tops Street view, shares rise
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Dell Inc, the world's No. 2 PC maker, posted a better-than-expected quarterly profit on Thursday as cost cuts offset lower revenue, sending its shares up about...
-
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac suspend some foreclosures
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two biggest U.S. home loan finance companies, on Thursday said they would suspend foreclosures of occupied homes until early 2009,...
|
|
|
|
Written by Ray Stone
|
|
Thursday, 07 August 2008 14:35 |
|
Death of Bling and the Rise of Personal Responsibility
Somewhere in America, a father is telling his son that he cannot purchase another pair of $110 sneakers like last time, he must make do with a $50 pair. Somewhere in the country, a young woman is discarding her dream of Prada bag ownership and buying an environmentally friendly cotton purse. She tells herself it's better to go green, anyway.
No one wanted it to happen like this. No one wanted citizens across the United States to be forced to spend the balance of their paycheck--the balance that was previously discretionary income--on the basics of food, shelter, interest payments, everyday necessities, and rising gasoline and heating and cooling prices.
What does this do for bling? The concept of outflashing your neighbor, unlimited consumerism, materialism, debt, keeping up with (actually trying to surpass) the Jones'?
Bling is dead. Personal responsibility is being revived. It turns out self ownership was only mostly dead. When forced between a buying food or buying the latest Oakleys, practicality and self preservation still win out. Of course, this is especially true when the credit cards are maxed and the home equity line of credit is gone.
And yes, the desire for true liberty and freedom is alive and getting stronger. People across the country are waking up to the fact that when thought they were acting with liberty, they were actually taking the license to act financially recklessly. Liberty without responsibility is license.
Bling, consumerism, materialism, debt, and keeping up with the Jones are the antithesis of guarding liberty and adhering to the Constitution.
So, as consumer debt has risen in the past decades, the erosion of actual personal liberties has increased. And, of course, as social entitlements have grown in the past 30 years, personal responsibility for the care of self and immediate family has decreased.
Personal responsibility cannot exist without liberty, and liberty will not endure without responsibility.
Millions of U.S. citizens--those still looking for the government to rescue them time and time again, house and feed them indefinitely--need a wakeup call. Socialistic policies are theft, and the worst kind of disincentive to hard work and accountability.
This is the tough love I'm hoping to see from limited government candidates at all elected office levels across the country. Can someone tell it like it is? I would love to hear a candidate say:
"You won't like me as a candidate if you have been collecting welfare or foodstamps for more than 1 year. Don't vote for me if you are not intimately involved with the education of your children. I'm not your candidate if you are not actively managing the care of your elderly father or mother. If, instead, you want your government to leave you and your money alone, then vote for me. As Goldwater said, 'I'm not running for office to get laws passed, I'm running to get them repealed.'"
It's time for an Us vs. Them battle. A Self Ownership Belief vs. Social Entitlement Mentality battle for the country. Let's hope those on the other side lay down their public assistance checks and join us. |
|
|
|
