There are a lot of people right now who are in full support of government bailouts. According to our current administration, the best way to keep us from going into more debt is to go into more debt. Now, if there are any financial analysts who read this and want to tell me that the plan will work, that’s fine. I’m not here to argue that point, because I don’t know enough to do so.

But – won’t this solution just allow us to make the same mistakes over again?

We live in a society that wants us to sit back and be protected. What happened to the self-sufficiency that was our calling card for 200 years? The United States of America used to be about working hard and keeping our independence. But for some, “independence” seems to mean dependence on our government to fix our problems. Is that fair? Is it the government’s responsibility to fix businesses that are tanking? I understand the logic: the businesses run our economy, and we all want the economy to do well so that we don’t have too many poor people. That’s great and all, but how is throwing money at it going to solve it?

Personal finance blog No Debt Plan looks at the demonization of credit card companies in one of the best posts I’ve read in the last month. The author feels – and I agree – that while we want to limit practices that are detrimental to the consumer, that does not mean we want the government to walk around putting out fires that we set in the first place:

Have some credit card companies used deceptive and abusive practices to increase profits?

Of course. Have some college students cheated on exams? Of course. Have some baseball players used illegal substances? Of course.

It is really easy to use one or two examples in an industry to point the finger and bring the mob of angry protesters to a company’s door. Again, I’m not saying it isn’t deserved in some cases.

Call me naive, but I just don’t believe that every single person with credit card debt was a victim. There are some individuals with piles of credit card debt that are also surrounded by new televisions, new computers, new clothes, and new kitchen appliances. They made choices. Debt today, stuff today.

The point is that people like to play the “victim card” in our country just to pass responsibility for their actions off on someone else. And if you want to think that this is another blogger who doesn’t understand the problems of the “average person” – I carry over $8,000 in credit card debt as of this typing. Do I want to punish the credit card companies for it? No. It was my boneheaded purchasing over the past few years, and I am responsible for fixing them, which I am doing – slowly but surely.

Let’s stop playing the blame game. Bailouts and laws won’t keep people from making stupid decisions. Education and making mistakes force people to change their habits. Let’s let Americans make mistakes. Then we can teach ourselves how to fix them.

Give a man a fish, and he will eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he will feed himself for a lifetime.

Do you disagree with this stance? Are you all in favor of bailouts and related government decisions? Share them with us in the comments!

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