By David Gerard
I promised myself I wasn’t going to write or complain about the financial mess we’re in anymore. My mantra, despite all the financial hullabaloo, was going to be “It’s only money.”
But get this.
My financial advisor sent me a birthday card last week that said, “You’re not getting older — you’re getting better, and hopefully, your investment portfolio is too.”
What a crock. We both know my investment portfolio’s not getting any better. It’s stalled or tanking.
And I don’t know for sure because I can’t get myself to look at my statements anymore, but I’ll bet the investment managers are still getting their management fees. Those fees may not amount to as much as when the market was healthy, but I’ll bet I’m paying something for them to watch my retirement put on hold.
At the rate the market is going, most of us won’t be able to retire until we’re 72, if then.
See, this is one of those redistribution of wealth events that occur often in life.
Investment firms, insurance companies, banks, loan companies, Madison Avenue — they create these convoluted financial schemes that they contend will make our lives more secure and prosperous, but they end up being a trap for us working people.
I’m not saying insurance policies, credit cards and mortgages have no value. I’m saying something that’s readily evident: The unregulated free capitalistic market will abuse these life-improvement devices to enrich itself at the expense of the people who support the market. And unregulated, the market will even endanger its own health and survival — the present crisis being a prime example.
Now, John McCain and Sarah Palin, during the presidential campaign, expressed their abject horror against the redistribution of wealth. Their horror, however, was not directed toward corporate and financial institutions, but the redistribution that Barack Obama proposed in a conversation with now famous Joe the Plumber.
It was unfortunate wording on Obama’s part, and McCain scored a lot of points touting Obama’s wealth redistribution as socialism. McCain convinced some voters that Obama’s plan is to tax a big portion of our hard-earned money so that he can create humongous government programs that do things such as give welfare to lazy, shiftless people.
I don’t think Obama meant that, and obviously a lot of other people didn’t believe that either. If he did, then many people would like to have their votes back.
But that’s not the case. McCain’s and Palin’s cry that Obama is preaching socialism may have had more force at some other time, but after Enron, the excesses of the pharmaceutical companies, the lobbying scandals in Washington, and now, the mortgage crisis, who isn’t ready for a little socialism? And by that I mean better controls against the excesses of corporate wealth.
And if these financial companies and corporations, such as the automakers, don’t get their acts together, a lot of people may be crying for the socialism that McCain and others don’t want to hear about.
What I don’t want to hear is my financial advisor telling me, “Hopefully, your investment portfolio is getting better.”
Hey, there’s not supposed to be any hopefully about it. It would be working for me if greed hadn’t gotten the best of the market.
And if we don’t get it straightened out, I’ll be sending my financial advisor a card, “Hey, buddy, can you spare a dime? It’s only money.”
To write GerardClick Here
