Full Time Grindin'

"Presidential" by Youngbloodz

...just look up and read all the lyrics to that song...that was Gwen, Tina, and my cut back in the day...

The previously listed song is about acquiring material goods, having beautiful women on one's arm, and just being a generally cool cat.

Before you say anything, I'm not about to criticize hip hop.

The aforementioned themes of the song (that most other songs also share) are common themes of capitalism in a patriarchal oppressive society.

This country is a great example of democracy and capitalism but it is also a great stage on which corruption and greed perform luxurious dialogues.

The current economic collapse is evidence of such a performance.

This morning, the White House approved a $13.4 billion package for the ailing automobile industry.

Everytime I hear these numbers, I develop a fever. How is such a number possible (do not mention the $700 million package so as not to offend me)?

My father explained to me how the housing crisis erupted and became the catalyst for the tragedy that is the ecomony right now. In very rudimentary terms, it boils down to corruption and greed on the side of these institutions and greed on the part of the participating American residents.

Adjustable rates and interest only plans sound like stupid ideas to me and I am only 21, have a year left of college, and am not almost qualified to purchase a home. But what I understand from buying a home and building equity, interest only is counterproductive. Why pay only the interest on a home and build absolutely no equity? You are basically paying the profit directly to the loaner and building no wealth of your own.

Adjustable rates? That means they can manipulate the rates as they see fit. Of course, to get you to sign, it'll be spectacularly low. The next year, the rate is offensively jacked up and suddenly the Joneses cannot afford their mortgage.

People are left in a tight spot now. They have to pinch pennies all around so no money is circulating in the economy. Businesses suffer as people cannot afford the typical overindulgences of American culture. Bigger is better. More is better.

And people aren't buying cars. Every year my father and I would watch for the new lines of cars and discuss aesthetics and functionality, although our family wasn't actually buying a new car. Now, we don't have that conversation. Pocketbooks are so tight that simple discussion of things that cost money seems to incur debt.

Two million jobs have been lost this year, over 500,000 of them in the month of November alone. And according to many, things will not look up for a quite some time.

So the car industry has suffered to a degree I never imagined. This is a deep, deep recession. As they say, sh*t is about to get real.

_______

Back to our capitalism in a patriarchal oppressive society. Capitalism, as we practice it, must change. A free market is good but total freedom and a healthy market cannot coexist and the idea of its possibility is a fallacy.

We all have rules. We all have to live under rules and regulations. Why is wall street or any of those institutions that need a bailout now any different? The thing is, people, left unmonitored, are not honorable, at least not all the time. People are greedy. Humans are innately greedy, self-preserving creatures. That is why learning to share your toys in kindergarten is an important gauge for a child's social development. We have to be taught to give a damn about other people and what they want/need.

So these institutions were left unmonitored. The inflated the values of houses and there was no one to blow a whistle and say, "That house ain't worth no $700,000. Chill." No one can do that because the other banks are busy doing the same thing. The government is the only institution that has the clout to intervene. It has the power of the Constitution and law behind it.

This is where the party lines will be drawn in this entry. Conservatism abhors big government. The market should regulate itself. Liberalism thinks that big government is the only remedy. The market has to be regulated.

I am a liberal. The market has to be regulated. These banks inflated the prices of homes and lowered the qualifications to buy a home. Suddenly, everybody qualified to buy a home (and trust me, everybody did not qualify to buy a house). Now, you have people who owe more on their homes than the home is actually worth.

That is to say, if a house is worth only $200,000, the bank inflated the value to $500,000, the Jones bought the house under some bogus adjustable rate contract, the rates went up, the Jones couldn't afford it anymore, but they owed, $475,000 on a house that is only worth $200,000.

And the American residents. People who signed up for the $500,000 houses knowing they could not afford them under normal circumstances have a share in this blame. This whole culture of more, more, more is a problem but this is the culture we built and continue to subscribe to.

Money is to buy things, to impress people, to think well of ourselves, to work harder, to get money to buy more things.