Looking back

I occasionally look back on my life from time to time, and I see a mix of moments that make my heart swell with pride at my accomplishments, and moments that make me wish I had done things completely different. I believe that anyone who says they can reflect on their life and not have ANY regrets is a liar, for there is not one of us who is perfect and has not done or said something (or has failed to do or say something) that they wish could have been different.

That being said, I think that responsibility is a lost art. As I sit in my modest rental home, I become all the more nauseated as I read and watch stories about all of the people in this nation standing around with outstretched hands to our newly elected government, asking for "bailout money" from an "economic stimulus package" invented to save this nation from sure economic collapse. Why is this even being considered?

When did the hard-working Americans who ran this country for centuries breed lazy, irresponsible, needy, immature pseudo-adults who make poor choices and then expect everyone else to save them? In my limited 27 years on this planet, I have seen the moral decline of society and wonder how our grandparents and great-grandparents must feel to know that their values have fallen by the wayside, overthrown by a self-serving attitude that is outshined only by the voice of entitlement shouted across the nation.

I will be the first to admit that many of my choices in life were, in hindsight, not the best ones to have made. But I can say that for the majority of those choices, there was a lesson permanently learned, and that I have never made those mistakes again. I also thank my father for teaching me to learn from others' mistakes, so as to not make them myself. Hence why I do not own a home, nor have ever had a mortgage, or paid for a loan on more than one vehicle, or gambled in the stock market, or dabbled in drugs, or thrown my money around like I hadn't a care in the world.

So why is it, then, that I stand to benefit none from this proposed "bailout package"? Why do those Americans who made poor choices in investing, or in buying a home when they couldn't afford it, get on the list to receive a benefit from a bad decision? When do those of us, few as we are, who have not taken from the public or leeched off of our neighbors get a reward for good behavior? Never, it appears. I could have applied for Medicaid, or welfare, or an ARM at any point in my young adult life. But I didn't, because it is just not my nature to take from the system if there is some other way, ANY other way, for me to survive.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to own my own home. A 2500 square foot log home way up in the mountains, away from everyone, to be exact. But I know that realistically, without extending my family beyond their means, that is not going to happen, at least not at this point in life. I guess that instant gratification-type mentality has permeated this society to a point of no return. And just for the record, I hope this bailout package passes, and the economy still eats the big one. I get excited when I see the stock market dropping, because a large part of me wishes this nation would finally be smacked upside their entitled heads and realize that this is a mistake that cannot be covered up by throwing more worthless money at it.

So I'll just continue to plod along, working my rote little job, driving my economical little car, living in my modest rented home while the world crumbles around me. I know the time will come, sooner than you think, when all of those Hummer-driving, mortgage-owing, stock market-watching nail biters will come to us responsible citizens and ask how it is we are able to live on one income and haven't lost our homes. The sad part is, they'll be standing there with their hand out while they do it.