ATS Poll: Who Is To Blame For Our Financial Crisis?

I am just curious, after and exchange of words with my cyber friend and nemesis(politically) NEO96, who always blames the gov for everything, what you guys think? I think the blame is not exclusive and should be spread around. Sure, one side may be more responsible, but not so much that they should attract ALL the blame.
It is not an either or situation and both the gov and corps have people from within vested in each other.
So my question is, who is more to blame?

A- The gov
B)- Wall St/Bankers and corporations
C)- Some of both
D)- The people
E) The system(s)

I say both, and to continually condemn one exclusively is not honest or accurate. And to remain on one side of the aisle blaming the other only continues to divide. Isn't the problem more multi-facetted than that? Again, I am not saying earning money is bad, or gov regulation is all good, but the aggressive pursuit of profits before people is the blame, and they all keep their fingers in that pie.


Peace,
spec

I vote D - the people....

We are the ones that will not fight for our rights. We accept the governments new regulations and power they assign to themselves with very little fighting or protesting.

When the government used to do things the people disliked, they let it be known and got the item overturned. Nowadays we do nothing, but sit back and bitch. We need to do proactive things and it seems like most people could care less as 'it doesn't affect them', when it does or it will.

Laziness of the people is the worst thing for any country.

Pred...

ETA: And we also let wall street just take our money. They have continued to take from the poor. I sold my house recently and had a large chunk of money, the bank called me and ask me if I would like a high interest account, I asked the details and they said they would give me 1.5%. High interest? They charge us 20% on credit cards and the most they offer is 1.5. Absolute criminals...

reply to post by predator0187

I vote D - the people....

Ahh touche'! But not all the blame huh? Certainly a part of it though...

spec

reply to post by speculativeoptimist


In the middle of any crisis, blame is irrelevant. Blame does nothing at all to accomplish the necessary targets and goals to get out of the crisis. Institutions, private or public, will not do this. Individuals will fix the problems that led to the crisis. I don't mean Messianic individuals, I mean your plain old regular Joes and Janes. When the majority of individuals decide to, on an individual basis, reject the gross intrusions thrust into the market place, by governments, cartels, and other unnecessary suppressors, and begin instead to operate under a free and unregulated market, then the crisis will calm down and the general welfare of the people will be better assured.

everybody who made 50,000 a year and took out a no income verification mortgage loan for 400,000

reply to post by Jean Paul Zodeaux

Well said JP, and I agree, and this is why I get frustrated when people come out in attack mode blaming a single entity. Let's change the term from blame to assign responsibility, and I think there is plenty to go around.

spec

reply to post by speculativeoptimist


Maybe not all, but the majority. Don't get me wrong, all the politicians are the most corrupt people, and the banisters are the biggest criminals, but they only get away with it because we let them.

We are supposed to be in control, we are supposed to be calling the shots, but they keep taking away the power from the people and we let them do it.

Pred...

Originally posted by syrinx high priest
everybody who made 50,000 a year and took out a no income verification mortgage loan for 400,000

Why them? Everybody makes it seem like that's the only way to get ahead I'm the world is to be in real estate. Of course people are going to accept loans, thats to be expected, they artificially inflated the market and made it seem like there was no ceiling.

People didn't buy expecting to default, people bought expecting to make a lot of money, and that's the way these loans were sold to them. It seemed like a no brainer to the people and the banks wanted to sell them, to balme the people who had no idea how this whole charade worked is uninformed IMO.

The housing crisis was one thing I put sole responsibility on the government and the banisters...

Pred...

D) The system.

The game plays out following the game's own rules. What translates is the logical outcome of the game, considering the rules and mechanisms of the game. There was nothing anyone could have done to prevent this, because the rules are flawed and the game was doomed from the start.

This system does not work, and can not work, because it is not sustainable.

It is only the fault of those who argue their faith in the system, and contribute to it's mechanisms through blind ideology. You may find samples of these blind ideologues in every slice of the demographic pie, politicians, bankers, workers. Every man who accepts economic slavery, be he slave or master, and feels that he deserves to reap his well earned dollars/euros/yen, because he is incapable of imagining anything else.

We have all been educated into believing that the system can work, which is why politicians are incapable of coming up with any viable alternative solution. They don't understand that the machine is broken because they can not imagine that the machine does not work.

The truth is that the system was broken from the start.

You need another category. Liberal Socialists have screwed the whole world wanting some utopia with everybody holding hands singing kumbaya. They want everyone equal and beaten down so nobody will feel bad about themselves. Well, boo hoo. Heaven forbid someone do something to improve their lot in life. Can't have someone smarter, richer or with more toys. Bunch of lackluster Eloi, so dumbed down they are only good for prey.

C

Corporate greed + out of control government spending = Financial Disaster

There's no financial room left for the backbone of the country, the middle class.

What happens to the organism when you take out the spine?

Failure.

reply to post by Bramble Iceshimmer


Prey on us then.

We humans are good at dealing with our predators, because we are good at sticking together and helping each other.

reply to post by Ismail

D) The system.

Oh yea, I will make that choice E, but the comments so far have only confirmed that it is not just one entities fault, therefore EXCLUSIVE blame and shouting for only one is disingenuous and inaccurate, imo.
When it comes to tradition or systems, the Buddhist term 'impermanence' always comes to mind, and makes me think the 'system' needs to be modified( I did not say eliminated), and what once worked so well, has to change with the times. Whoa, do I sound like a progressive now?

I am Speculativeoptimist and I am more than just one idea!

reply to post by speculativeoptimist


Agreed.

Star for you.

reply to post by Ismail


Thanks man(?) Love your avatar too!

reply to post by speculativeoptimist


The government set the ball rolling. Each administration since Reagan tweaked the lended game by providing incentives to the banks for lending to those who, normally, wouldn't be able to get a loan. Clinton took it way too far by giving so much back to the banks that they started inventing new types of loans to ensure that everyone would want them.

Lenders, banks and investment groups, seeing that there was plenty of money to be made by lending to people and then selling those loans to other folk, siezed the opportunity. They found new ways to obtain the mortgages that they were packaging and selling. They pushed bad loans thru with the help of appraisers not doing their jobs properly by overstating values. Insurance companies like AIG sold insurance to protect the banks, in the event of default.

The people, seeing an opportunity to own a home that never existed before, jumped at the chance. Shady lenders were getting them loans, and cash back, even if the value of the home was less than the loan. Why? because nobody cared about the loan. It would be packaged and sold and in the event something went wrong, AIG would pay up on the insurance claim.


Everyone is to blame.

reply to post by Crakeur

Everyone is to blame.

Bingo! Now what do we do? Seems the entire system needs revamped. But that would take an overall uniform approach which starts to sound like, well not NWO exactly, but something along those lines, one plant, one system. I can see the benefit of that too, as long as it is altruistic, transparent and everyone is involved. Too bad any effort to better our world will be met with such animosity and mistrust, but that is the nature of humanity and experience I reckon. So I don't know the answer, if there even is a single answer, but continually shouting out at one entity/situation to blame is no good, and actually does more harm than good, imo.

spec

reply to post by Crakeur


But isn't what you describe just the logical outcome of the way the system works ?

You can believe in morals or political ideology but at the end of the day, the game says you have to pay to play, and play to pay.

reply to post by speculativeoptimist


there's nothing we can do short of wiping out the human race because, by nature, the human race is

Greedy (bankers profiteering regardless of the potential disaster)
Stupid (people taking on debt that they knew they'd be unable to pay when the adjustments kicked it)
power hungry (politicians willing to capsize our economy for the sake of votes)

Originally posted by 2012srb
C

Corporate greed + out of control government spending = Financial Disaster

There's no financial room left for the backbone of the country, the middle class.

What happens to the organism when you take out the spine?

Failure.

This is my vote as well, the bankers should follow guidelines and not give out
loans to ppl that do not qualify.

The ppl who are paid WELL to be the gate keepers of the financial system
did not do their jobs.

The government penned stupid bills like the CRA.

The banksters created 1,500 trillion in derivatives and then sold it to
countries and retirement accounts as an asset when it was really bad loans.

This bankrupted Iceland and other countries.

The ppl on here blaming the citizens have not done their homework and
are simply following the TV hypno box propaganda.

Try research instead of regurgitating what the lame stream media is brainwashing you with.