Gary Hart has a post on his web site, Matters of Principle. He talks about his charming and hard working childhood in the bygone world of Ottawa, Kansas. Here’s a quote –
Everyone worked, in my case starting at the age of eleven. (I don’t think there were child labor laws then.) We didn’t spend money we didn’t have. There were no credit cards. And my parents would have been embarrassed to go to the bank and ask for a loan to buy more gadgets. The Depression taught them, and they taught me, don’t go into debt.
Gee, Gary, I’m glad that these Americans with poor judgment can still shape up and we can fix everything if they only start saving and, by the way, acting like you.
Of course, there are some pesky little problems associated with your point of view. The Middle Classes’ desperately slow wage increases over the last 30 years, the explosion of credit cards marketing and every other kind of heavily advertised easy credit, the rising costs of tuition, medical care and host of other necessary expenses. How about the slow grinding pain of America’s manufacturing disappearance and the good jobs that went with it? It’s not gadgets that gets Americans into debt, it’s trying to make ends meet, it’s trying to put food on the table, it’s trying to get through one more month.
It’s a fine thing to talk about personal responsibility when you lived in a time and place without these economic elements, without this kind of pain. Did you know that the average level of unemployment during the 1950’s averaged about 4% and that right now it is 9.5? Bother you any? Maybe every body worked in your happy childhood because they could find a job? It’s a fine time to blame the victims for the economic decline in America over the last thirty years. It is a fine deal when the incredible, amazing failure of this government to stand up for ordinary Americans, does not appear to figure in your fascinating blame game, where the victims are the perpetrators. Yeah, we all committed economic suicide.
Tell me something ole’ buddy, when the stock market went down from its high of 14,000 and demolished the values of pensions and 401k’s all over this great nation, where was the responsibility then? I guess those stupid lazy gadget buying Americans couldn’t be trusted to invest their hard earned money like they were urged to by their government, the business industry and every kind of serious of academic publication. Savings always gets its proper reward.
How dare you. I know these people, the ones that worked for twenty years at a factory that left and went over seas, the people whose medical expenses destroyed their lives, and the unemployed who got nailed by a financial crisis they had nothing to do with.
While you write your comic crap, they suffer.
James Pilant
Pilant's Business Ethics Blog 
I can have sympathy for people who fall on hard times. I also have no problem blaming large companies for moving jobs overseas.
However, what Gary is trying to convey is the virtues needed for surviving such a financial fiasco.
I know that you seem to have a hard time with the notion that people should be responsible for their actions/choices, but believe it or not, when a person commits an action, there are consequences. Credit card marketing is NO EXCUSE for an increase in debt. If the consumer cant afford to have a credit card, then they should have the DISCIPLINE to not get that card. Before you condemn the credit card companies, keep in mind that its the consumers who CHOOSE to get themselves into debt, all the while being AWARE of the terms of the credit, that perpetuates that type of business practice.
The presence of these economic elements AMPLIFIES the need to talk about personal responsibility. It does not negate personal responsibility. In the real world, people are only out for themselves and their loved ones. No one should expect that the entire world should stop to make sure that they are taken care of.
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I can only control what I can control. As much as large multinationals, credit card companies and pay day loan companies act unethically and make me angry, there’s not much I can do to change their attitude or behavior. Periodically, business has attempted to show that they’re ethical and many are ethical. We’ve been through the Steven Covey period of principle centered business ethics, which often left the mission statement in the print room collecting cob webs. I can withhold my business or vote for people that I feel will live into my interest, but ultimately we do have to take personal responsibility. We can’t buy into the party line that we can have it all and not worry about tomorrow. And we can’t put our faith in McBamma or O’Cain to fix it and fix it now. And I can’t wax nostalgically about the good old days. Why? Because they never existed.
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Amen!
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Fist let me say this that yes i beleive there are consrquences for our actions. Right now the American people are suffering those consequences but , not for their actions. From 1973 and 2005 real wages were down by 6%. In 2005 hourly wage was $16.11 per hour, about the same as in 1966( in real terms). Which means that it looks good when looked at by its self. Lets look at how much things cost in say 1947. Average house cost $6,600.00, cost of a gallon of gas 15 cents or the average cost to buy a new car $1300.00. Cost of living for 1966, Average cost for a new home $14200.00, gas per gallon 32 cents and the average new car $2650.00. In 2008 – 2009 average cost of a new house (2008 – 2009) $232.880 , average cost to rent a house per month $800.00- 780.00 and the cost of a gallon of gas $2.51 – 2.73. The cost of a loaf of bread in 2010 $2.27-2.49. Now if you look at it in real terms maybe you start to understand that we are making the same as prices continue to rise. It will not matter how much personal responiblity we the people take for our actions until the goverment starts taking responisbilyt for their actions. The big businesses that are allowed to move their companies overseas are taking what little income that Americans do have. Isn’t it time we start thinking about home. Thats suppose to be what we fight for.
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I very much appreciate you bringing facts and your opinion to the discussion. Whether you agree with me or not (and in this care you do) facts are always welcome and speak well of the commentator. My thanks!
James Alan Pilant
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Dont get me wrong, I am not trying to excuse the government and large corporations for their unethical actions. I believe these organizations should be held accountable for their actions as well. I just dont like the rampant mentality that the government is there to fix everyone’s problems.
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P.S. – In an indirect way, the people are to blame. We elected all of these idiots to office. As long as we maintain the current philosophical paradigm of government and our role in it as voters and consumers, then we will continue to allow the government to not hold these large corporations (and themselves) accountable for their actions.
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In all government, there is a level of personal responsibility. Even in the Third Reich, there was a great deal of assent and support for the government which for most of its existence was quite popular. However, the responsibility for our political class can only be partially laid at the feet of the voters as the process has become such that it often seems as if you have no vote at all. Obviously, there are high stakes races where every vote counts but most districts in this country are single party districts where more than 97% of the time the incumbent wins. That kind of thing preserves politics in formaldehyde for all intents and purposes.
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