There's something that John McCain said in his chromakey speech (and please, someone put some sports bloopers behind him on the green-screen, because no sports out-takes can be as painful as that speech). It was this bit:
It's the attitude of politicians who are sure of themselves but have little faith in the wisdom, decency and common sense of free people.
Wisdom, decency and common sense, huh?
More, below the fold...
Wisdom - in 1980, Ronald Reagan's government took an idea that was originally only meant for executives and sold it to every Tom, Dick and Harry. The 401(k). Everyone got in, which boosted the stock markets purely because of supply and demand. There were still the same number of companies trading on the Dow, for example, but millions more people putting their money into those markets. Individually, those amounts weren't big. But millions of people putting in a few dollars? You've seen what happens to a PowerBall jackpot.
The flaw in this idea was on of demographics. Most people that bought into 401(k)s are Baby Boomers. Which means their age is known, and they all age at the rate of one year every year (until they die). Before they all shuffle off this mortal coil, however, they're going to want some of that money. Not all of it, mind you. Just a few dollars.
You know the bit about millions of people putting a few dollars into the markets? Reverse that.
Even without the other strains on the economy, over 40 million people will eventually want to start withdrawing some of their funds. They don't need to all take it all out at once to cause a crash - just look at sub-prime mortgages and what damage they caused to see how small initial inputs can lead to outcomes larger than most people (translation: people that have never heard of chaos theory) could think possible.
The Dow Jones lost over 3% of its value today. These are the same companies they were at this time yesterday, still producing the same widgets. But they're worth 3% less. And the same goes for granny's retirement portfolio.
This strategy, according to John McCain, would be "the right kind" of change. The same mentality that had Jim Cramer declaring that people shouldn't sell Bear Stearns stock. One week before their value went from January's $171.51 to March's $3.72 a share. To which those that don't care about granny say: oops!
Let me put those numbers this way. If you had bought $1,000 in Bear Steans stock two months before the nosedive, your grand would not have covered a $25 night out.
Decency - then there's the surveillance video of a 78 year-old man knocked down in the street. And people just kept going. Sure, four people got on their cellphones and dialed 911: but there's a guy lying in the middle of the street. He'd just been hit by a car. And people, not just the hit-and-run scumbag, didn't even go up to the guy to ask him how he was?
We only know it happened like this because of surveillance camera footage. John McCain thinks the country is full of people that would drop making that apple pie instantly and apply that tourniquet. John McCain is not living in the same America as the rest of us.
Common sense - I don't know which is sadder: the fact that stories like this are deemed newsworthy, or the fact that they happen so frequently...
Police released cruiser camera footage that shows the arrest of a woman accused of allowing a toddler help her drive a car while she was drunk.
The 1-year-old sat on Marya Green’s lap and helped steer before an officer pulled her over June 3 in a Goshen Township trailer park, police said.
Officer Keith Clonch said he suspected the driver was drunk, but he did not expect to find a 1-year-old boy behind the wheel.
In 'The Simpsons', Ned Flanders once said "I wish we lived in a place more like the America of yesteryear that only exists in the brains of us Republicans". I think John McCain isn't planning to move out of that place any time soon...
You all have a great weekend.