UPDATE: I should preface this by saying I'm not for nor strongly against federal bailouts. I'm simply against the attitude I hear so many people espousing, which is that "Bailouts suck" unless they directly impact that individual. There is enough selfishness in the world. This is a democracy; no one is more entitled to being bailed out than anyone else.
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I grew up a very privileged child in a family that was financially comfortable for the majority of my formative years. We had a big house, two cars, and my mom didn't have to work.
When my dad left his investment banking job to start his own business, we were enthusiastic. Five years later, everything changed.
An investor in my dad's company breeched his contract and pulled out all of his money, leaving us with nothing. We had to sell our home, a car, even the piano that I played for two hours every night after school. We moved to a more affordable town. I was 16 years old, and took two after school jobs because allowance wasn't something that I could count on anymore. My classmates drove their own cars to school; I took the train and sometimes waited a few hours at the train station for my mom to pick me up after the job she had taken on to help the family.
Because of where we lived in New Jersey, a lot of our friends and classmates and neighbors were (and many still are) wealthy. My brother and I, aside from volunteering through our church and trips into New York, hadn't had many close encounters with economic struggle, let alone poverty. We weren't impoverished; we had a roof over our heads and a hard-working family and health care. We ended up moving to Chicago; from New Jersey suburbanites to living in the middle of a city. My parents got divorced.
Where I had once assumed some savings account would save the day, there were college loans to rely on to get me through school. Where friends called home to have their meal cards reloaded or their Visa bills paid, I worked three jobs; two on-campus, one off, working until 3 or 4 a.m. on homework to try and make straight A's to qualify for scholarships to take a few grand off the college loan bills.
When I graduated, I got a job instantly; far luckier than many of my classmates. My parents knew they could trust that I would land on my feet. After seeing them try so hard to shelter my brother and I from hardship, it made me feel proud that I could reassure them that I was okay. Aside from the occasional gift of cash here and there, I was self-sufficient from the day I took a full-time job. I have about $3,000 in credit card debt, but I used that money to help pay medical expenses or other bills here and there. I met a wonderful man and we're engaged. We bought a condo this year to take advantage of the $7,500 tax credit. We have a new puppy. We both work more than 40 hours a week, but we have jobs that we like and are committed to.
Our HR director at my current job announced no one would be getting raises this year; that we should consider ourselves lucky to be in a job in this economy. Few people complained, because I work for a non-profit and see our members' businesses struggling every single day.
Sometimes I worry about my debt and bills. I worry about my parents. Despite the divorce and the hardship when our family business failed, they both landed on their feet with good jobs. My dad even managed to erase any memory of the hard times by coming back into investment banking with an even stronger will and, if possible, even better work ethic. They seem all right, but what if they needed help someday? Neither are remarried.
I hear people on the radio, from Air America to NPR, saying "Don't bail out the banks, bail out the auto industry" or "don't bail out the auto industry, bail out my mortgage," or "don't bail anyone out, it's their own damn fault for getting into a mortgage they couldn't afford." Maybe we don't need federal bailouts as much as we need a bit more compassion in our culture. Everyone can fall; even those at the very top. For my fellow Cubs fans, it looks like a bid to buy the Cubs is the least of Mark Cuban's troubles... he may be headed for jail.
It was no one's fault, what happened to my family, although I know my parents blame themselves. My brother and I just appreciate that we live in the real world now, and not some fairy tale existance like our childhood friends. Someone actually texted us a few weeks ago to say how much they hated not being "rich". It was hard for me to respond to that text. I thought, this person owns a house, a brand new car, has a good job, has a healthy and happy family... you ARE rich! You should see how bad some people have it.
My grandfather immigrated here in the 1950s with nothing but the clothes on his back. He worked his hands to the bone to make a go of it in America. No one bailed him out. No one bailed my parents out. We all landed on our feet, just the same.
I'd rather live within my means, knowing everyday that I had worked to earn my life fair and square, than get rich by stepping all over my fellow citizens. I am blessed that, despite the outrageous student loan debt, I got an excellent college education. I'm blessed to own a home, and have a good job. I'm blessed to have good health. Most of all, though, I'm blessed to have perspective, and I wouldn't have had that without the bumps in the road along the way.