Tony Napier: Irresponsible citizens share the blame for economic turmoil

The severe economic downturn is not entirely the fault of Wall Street. The majority of blame must fall upon the American people. In a free-market system like we have in the United States, the economy is merely a reflection of the will of the people and as such the consequences should mirror.

Leaders from both sides of the political spectrum are constantly slamming big corporate entities for the severity of the economic crisis when they know well enough that the problem is not dishonesty on Wall Street. It is laziness on the part of the American people.

It's a cultural phenomenon that we, as Americans, assume someone else is going to take care of us. We were so sure that we didn't need to read the fine print written all over the wall that we shook our heads in tacit consent to be ruled by debt and the financial markets. According to the Federal Reserve Board, the average household credit card debt rose to $8,565 early this year. That's almost 15 percent since 2000! More importantly, total household debt including mortgages and credit card rose to 19 percent of the household's assets, compared to just 13 percent in 1980. The average household held about 8 percent of disposable income in savings in 1968. That number dropped to only 0.4 percent at the beginning of this year.

Americans are much too excited about spending money that is not theirs and not saving for a rainy day, which is why so many people are being forced out of retirement and back into the work force. Americans need to wake up and stop blaming everyone else for their financial problems. That's step No. 1.

Step No. 2 requires the American people to now turn to Wall Street and hold it accountable for its actions. Why would any normal person be expected to balance their budget and prepare for an uncertain future when they are ensured a bailout every time something goes wrong? They are not, and neither are the CEOs of multi-billion dollar corporations. The Big 3 auto companies met with Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House, and Harry Reid, Senate majority leader, to discuss access to the $700 billion bailout money, money that was meant to free up the credit market, not to give Ford, GM, and Chrysler a break. Even more disturbing is that AIG has actually come back to the government asking for better terms for its bailout loan. It is absolutely absurd that, we the taxpayers are bailing out a company that we could have let tank and now they are asking for a better deal?

We must let them fall flat on their faces, and if they do not get back up, that is just too bad. It's going to hurt real bad for a real long time for a lot of people, but it's a lesson we need to learn and I can guarantee that the next time corporations think they can get away with making risky decisions, they will think twice.

It's time for tough love, people; it's the only way we are going to make it though this economic crisis with real lessons learned. This is the hope Americans must cling to, a hope that delivers a future for our grandchildren and our grandchildren's grandchildren. We can no longer turn a blind eye to this problem and slap a Band-Aid on the jugular of our society. We need major surgery and we need it now.

Tony Napier of Nampa is a senior political science major at Northwest Nazarene University.