Have you ever made one of those comments that just kept going and going and going....you know, kind of like that Energizer Bunny.  Well, yesterday I wrote a blog called "I'm From The Government"   and a gentleman by the name of John MacArthur  commented on it.  John has commented a few times on my posts and while we almost never agree, I have to admit that he's made me think about some things and I admire his convictions.

Anyway, below is the response that I left to his comment.  After proofreading it, I realized that it was longer than some of my posts and being the point dog that I am, I decided to pull a Hollywood move and to flesh it out into a post by itself.  Kind of like what they did with the Simpsons after it was on the Tracy Ullman show.  

 

So without further adieu......my comment..... 

John:  I too enjoy your comments on these posts and in some ways I think that we might even think more alike than either of us would probably care to believe. Scary thought, huh?  I'll fess up, I have been busy with a number of different projects that make breaking time off to read as much as I would like, but will check out your posts as soon as I'm done counteracting the naive dribble that you wrote here.......(whoops, did I really write that...I better lay off of the energy drinks past 5!).  Just teasing...don't take me serious at all there.

What I really mean is that I can see some of your points, but I disagree with others.  On your first point about the government making everybody feel better.  To me, this is a legitimate governmental role.  "Provide for the common welfare" and all that stuff.  As I pointed out in one of my blogs (doesn't it suck when you can't even quote yourself....man, I've been blogging too much!) certain things are so big that the most efficient way of dealing with them is through government action.  Fighting a war for example or building a highway system.  The savings and loan fiasco would be an example.  

Yeah, sometimes the government isn't the most efficient at remedying a problem, but a low success percentage is better than nobody being able to wrap their mitts around an issue and not having any success at all.  Sometimes the government makes actually makes things worse, but on these things I think that it happens when the people in power don't play things straight up.  When our government honestly addresses a problem, I think that they have a fairly good track record of actually fixing things right.  Not perfect, but fairly good.  I'm thinking of how our government responded to WWII and the great depression (which might have been one and the same thing!).

I do agree with you on the "you pay, you stay" point.  Anybody who is looking for a handout (big corporate types included here) should hit the highway.  The housing mess is a serious problem and as long as our government is treating it as just a passing opportunity to roast some pork and repay some campaign debts, it ain't going to get much better.  I'm thinking HR3915 and the pig roast that's getting ready to happen with Secretary Paulson's "plan".  As far as investors go, if I ran the world they wouldn't be included in rescue plan.  Real Estate investors where playing a hand and need to play what they were dealt.  The investors who were buying the CDO's should be happy if they benefit from homeowners being rescued and shut the fxck up.

Your point about real estate values being artificially inflated, I also have a bit of a problem with.  Yes, real estate values shot skyward due to the fed's having held interest rates low, but that was a side effect of the Fed keeping interest rates low in order to keep the economy moving forward.  Kind of like a sailboat going fast because it was a windy day.

Also on this point, I feel that the demographics of the housing market are such that as soon as they fix the credit markets that the housing market will take right back off again.  Mark my words and be sure to tell people that you heard it hear first!

As far as tax dollars being spent on stuff that I wouldn't support, I can rattle off quite a few things that the government spends money on that get my goat and sometimes throws me into a moral tizzy!  The war in Iraq, government subsidies to big agriculture and oil companies, the war on drugs!  Like I said, I can rattle off quite a few of them, but as long as we live in at least a pseudo democracy, these things are going to happen.  If you don't like them, convince as many people as you can to support your cause and have a rally, but until you get enough people to stand behind your position to get the politician's eye, you have to live with believing that these things suck...

Anyway, looking at what I have just wrote, I think that I'll repackage it and post is a blog....thanks for the inspiration and for your comment....

 

Bob Mitchell

ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc.

 

Bob Mitchell is the president of ValueList Real Estate Services, Inc., St. Louis' largest discount/full-service real estate and mortgage company.  To find out more about Bob, ValueList or our flat-fee listing program please feel free to visit our web page, valuelistre.com