Capitalism Quirks

I love capitalism.
When I was in college, I was a bleeding heart liberal and espoused this sort of touchy-feely, "let's-all-just-share-everything-and-be-happy" sort of socialism, but as we all know, that simply doesn't work in the real world.

So, I'm a capitalist. As a self employed entrepreneur, I love the fact that the harder I work, the more money I make. Conversely, if I want to be a slug for a month and do nothing but watch Judy Judy and eat Twinkies, that's totally up to me, but I will have zero dollars coming in.

Anyway, capitalism (and the American brand of consumerism that goes hand-in-hand with it) does have some really odd quirks. Like my neighbors that live a few houses down, for instance. They will remain nameless for this blog, but these people are the epitome of Conspicuous Consumption. They are all about Status and Stuff. They have 4 kids and their house always has that disheveled look about it, however they have Really Nice Stuff parked in their driveway. For awhile they had a lovely Lexus and then the repo man called ME (yes, me) because they were obviously hiding from him. Repo man had the nerve to ask me what I knew about them and asked would I be willing to give any information out on them (of course, I told him to go take a flying leap....). Shortly thereafter, as you might imagine, lovely Lexus was gone. However, yesterday, when I was out walking the dog, I noticed they have a shiny new Mercedes, parked where lovely Lexus used to sit. The Mercedes is da bomb - it's even nicer than the Lexus was.
Now, isn't this bizarre? How in the world did they even get a loan to finance lovely Mercedes? And how long will it be before Ronnie Repo is calling my house again, digging for info?

I just don't get it. I drive a paid-for 6 year old car; I don't have debt, and I don't understand people who live well above their means. These folks have FOUR kids to take care of. Their youngest child (who is 5) is frequently at our house because when she gets off the schoolbus there is often no one home..... (what is that about??? who leave a kindergartner to fend for herself??)

Sorry, I don't mean to vent. (Well, actually that's not true. I DO mean to vent.)

I think a lot of people in our contry have their priorities seriously screwed up. Another example is this whole sub-prime mortgage mess.... everyone is on the talk shows wailing and whining about it. Yes, the banks were greedy and tried to make big profits by stupidly loaning money to people who they knew couldn't afford these loans. But don't the consumers have to take a good bit of the blame for this debacle? After all, they signed on the dotted line and took OUT the bad loan in the first place.

I just get very frustrated when my tax dollars go to bail out people who make bone-headed choices based on greed and selfishness. I have no problem with helping people who can't help themselves, but I really don't want to help people who do stupid stuff, again and again, and expect Uncle Sam to rescue them each time.

OK, I'm off my soapbox now.