FJ Quote of the Week

This goes right back to my previous post about 3rd Generation Wealth. I encourage you to read the whole post. "Market Ticker" is one of my links and I encourage you to check out his blog. I may not agree with everything this guy says, but he is right way more than he's wrong.

America simply will not stop being foolish. We have no leaders in this nation who will tell it like it is, and give it to us hard and straight, even when that is exactly what we need. Stocks are always supposed to go up, even when there is no consumer income growth to support rising sales. Home prices never go down. Incomes never decline and people never get laid off and businesses never fail.This is the fantasy land that America lives in, and it sucks.

I fight the outrageous consumerism that is drilled into my daughter's head by everyone she comes in contact with each and every day. No, you cannot have a $500 cell phone, and I don't care if your friend has one. No, you don't need a $100 pair of jeans; the $20 pair is just fine. No, you don't need three more swimming suits; you have two that fit. No, you don't need a new IPOD, you have an MP3 player and it works perfectly well.

This is not an accident. It is a matter of ingraining greed into our youth and ultimately into us, and it will destroy us. When times are good its fine to spend on vacations and toys, but not beyond what you can afford, because times are not always good.

Yet we never seem to remember that, or if we do, we don't care. We continue to believe that we can have something for nothing, whether its "free" health care, "free" prescription drugs, "free" retirement money or "free" digital music. When we don't get what we want we either whine to our government and demand it or, in some cases, we just steal it.

I'm tired of it folks. I see it every single day, all around me. Kids who think they are entitled to cars when they turn 16. No, they don't need to go get a job and buy one, they deserve that car and Daddy must buy it for them. Kids that once they get that car, don't need to buy their own insurance or gas - that's the parent's problem too. They won't ride the bus to school because its
"beneath them", and insist on driving the day they turn 16 - but they won't work to earn the money necessary to make that happen.

Here's the link to his post

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/2008/04/unbelieveable-stupidity-whiffs-abound.html