You Think Things Are Bad Now?

Ya know, we keep hearing how bad things are for banks and business and industry and we even hear that things seem to be bad for the unemployed. Well that last, at least, is true. But if you look at the rest, things aren't quite as bad as they sound, or they are but it's mostly of their own doing. Take banks for instance. Reports in the news tell us that bank profits are down. Well duhhh. They built up quite a profit machine with mortgages, especially bundled toxic mortgages. Now who was at fault there? I don't think anybody held a gun to their heads and forced them to make loans to people who couldn't afford to repay them. Then there's industry. Industry decided to begin to close plants in this country and ship the manufacturing sectors along with the technology to countries like China. Now those countries have the manufacturing capabilities and the technologies and our industries wonder why they can't compete with China. Well duhhh. What happened is, over time, the industrial jobs here went to bankers and a host of other endeavors. Now they lost their cash cows and everybody wonders why profits are down to levels not seen in more than a decade and unemployment is high. Well duhhh. When your economy is based on ill-gotten gains, and the roof falls in,  it's time to change the way you do things. The days of gigantic record breaking profits may be over for good. Get used to it. We need to borrow some technology and manufacturing back from places like China and begin to get competitive again. It's not like we can't do it. It's just that everybody has to work together. Industry, banking and government. Problem is, nobody trusts government to be able to come together to do it's part. If we fail to do it, it will be government that will be the one to screw things up. Not because it's too big or too small or too much regulation or too little, but because it won't be able to agree on just what it's function should be. Nor does that excuse industry and banks for not trying. Unfortunately, the ones in all this who suffer the most are the ones who can do the least to resolve it. That doesn't excuse us for not trying.