I made this story up when the banks were failing, but didn't post it until Friday as a comment. I like it as an allegory, so I decided 'what the heck' I'm publishing it as a post on it's own.
Drag Racing: A Story
Once there were a bunch young people renting a house together because none of them could really afford to live on their own.
They had different jobs sometimes non professional jobs, because when you are young that's what you have sometimes. They all managed to chip in.
One was a pizza delivery driver (let's call him Jamie). He loved driving and loved his car, so pizza delivery seemed like a good job. It was a steady regular job with a consistent paycheck but not a big one. This irked him. One day Jamie came home excited and told his housemates, that he was going to get into DRAG RACING. His housemates were happy for him, but concerned. Wasn't DRAG RACING dangerous? Jamie assured them that he had tricked out his car and reminded them that they always said he was a great driver. On the night of the DRAG RACE, everyone went out to see Jamie. Jamie's souped up car lined up with the rest of the cars and off they squealed. When the dust cleared, Jamie had won!,
And much to his surprise there was a cash prize for winning at DRAG RACING. A nice one especially compared to his salary as a humble pizza delivery driver. Jamie used the prize money to throw a big house party with beer and food totally on him and even the concerned housemates thought that DRAG RACING was pretty nifty in this light.
In the days and weeks that followed, Jamie did quite well in DRAG RACING. His winnings made for a very nice supplement to his pizza delivery, and even surpassed it. Jamie, for his part, told anyone who was near that he was into DRAG RACING. and how great it was. He wasn't stingy, he bought a huge flatscreen TV for the house,an X-box, a big stereo and plenty of other stuff. These items cost more than he had made, but he had the money making secret, DRAG RACING. So he put it on credit, since he figured that with the money from DRAG RACING, he could easily pay it off.
Then one day it happened. The thing that no one possibly could have foreseen. During a DRAG RACE, another car blew a tire and skidded out of control, causing a chain reaction crash that caught all the cars including Jamie!. Jamie was shaken but luckily unhurt, his car, however, was completely destroyed. His lovely lovely car had to be taken away for scrap. There would be no more DRAG RACING for Jamie.
When he went to the pizza place where he worked, the boss told him that since he didn't have a car, he was of no use as a pizza delivery driver. Jamie went home distraught and told his housemates this. His housemates, exclaimed " Oh no! we depend on your pizza delivery salary to pay the rent, if you can't we are all screwed, can you buy another car? a cheap one just so you can deliver pizzas?"
Jamie said " I have my car payments, and all these credit card bills still coming in and no way to pay for them, much less a new car". Then he said "Maybe you guys, my good housemates could chip in a buy me a car?" The other housemates conferred and debates and went back and forth because though they had some savings, they were not rich by any means, but it was clear if they wanted to make rent, they would have to buy Jamie a car, so they chipped in and did. But they said to Jamie "We are buying you a car, but we have one rule, NO DRAG RACING, we are sick of that". And Jamie said "yes NO DRAG RACING ,I agree). And everyone bought more Top Ramem and less sushi as a result. A few months later, one of the housemates saw Jamie with a DRAG RACING entry form in his hand, and he said "Hey , we agreed if we bought you a car, there was no more DRAG RACING" and Jamie looked at him and said "It's my life and I'm free to do what I want, what are you a socialist?"
And no one liked Jamie after that, and they all thought he was an ass.
The End