I think most people associate the words "financial responsibility" with paying their bills on time and maybe putting a little something aside for emergencies. Once upon a time, financial responsibility meant living within one's means and remaining debt-free, but for the vast majority of Americans, that's no longer even remotely possible. With the cost of a modest home at a quarter of a million dollars, the price of a week-long hospital stay not much less than that, and the price of a good steak more than what the majority of Americans earn per hour, we are forced to redefine financial responsibility.
People complain about corruption and the concentration of financial wealth in the hands of a few, yet most don't question their own role in creating this state of affairs. I'd just like to ask everyone here one question:
What is your 401k or your pension plan invested in? Do you even know?
Okay, that was two questions, but by allowing other people to invest your money for you in whatever guarantees the highest return, you provide the means necessary for an unprecedented concentration of power and corruption. The kinds of investments that are most likely to guarantee profits are insurance (which people are forced to buy), arms manufacturing, pharmeceuticals, oil, and usury. (Dick Cheney's Halliburton was invested in by PERS.) Unless we are willing to stop allowing our 401ks and pension plans to be invested in things that are morally reprehensible, things will only continue to get worse.
Imagine what would happen if everyone cashed out their 401k's and invested the money themselves in such things as wind power, instead of allowing it to be invested in oil companies. Okay, that's a pretty far-left example. I'm no petty dictator telling you where to invest your money, which is power, by the way. Invest it in pig futures or gene-therapy research. My point is that we need to take personal responsibility for our money and our power and invest it in things that we support on a moral and social level. By turning a blind eye and relinquishing our investment responsibilities to "the experts", for whom profits are primary, no matter the methods by which they are gained, we, however inactively, participate in creating the very entities which then enslave us.
How many of us are willing to follow the ultimate maxim of financial responsibility, which is "Put your money where your mouth is.", rather than espousing liberalism and fair trade while reaping profits from enterprises that are anything but fair.
Just sayin'.