What went wrong

It's Friday, September 19th, 2008. I just listened to our mumbling and "mispronounciating" President announce further government involvement in the mortgage mess.

First things first: you had to be a complete and utter idiot not to know that housing values were way too high and had to fall. Part of that was due to the rampant speculation, and part was due to my generation of Baby Boomers reaching retirement age and wanting to sell and downsize. You had to be an idiot not to see this.

There's never a shortage of idiots.

Second thing: there are two very important things we need to learn and learn NOW. One is simply this: Big is Bad. Giant corporations are dangerous in multiple ways. Monocultures are dangerous in computers, in agriculture and (as we have just seen) in banking. We need to stop adulating the big corporations and force them to split into smaller groups. Yes, I know we can't force the Japanese or the Chinese to see the long term wisdom of this and that doing this in our country puts us in a bad competitive situation against MegaCorps elsewhere. Doesn't matter: the risks are still too high.

The other thing is going to offend some readers here. I'm sorry about that, but it's unavoidable. Like it or not, we need to stop glorifying youth. Young people, particularly young men, should never be put in positions of authority. There are two reasons for that: you simply can't have had the experience to make good judgements until you are at least in your mid 30's, and (perhaps more importantly) your brain isn't mature until at least age 30. Having "young turks" in charge of anything is just plain stupid, but we've done that all too often.

Finally, we need regulation. Laissez-faire attitudes toward business had its part to play in this tragedy. I dislike the Republican Party for its pandering to the Religious Right anyway, so this is just another reason that I will not vote Republican. Yes, some Democrats have made their own contributions to this stupidity, but the general tone of the Democrats has always been more regulation, not less. And yes, I understand that too much regulation can cripple markets just as badly as too little, but it is very plain that we have had far too little here.

OK: I've offended everyone under thirty, Republicans and the deeply religious. So be it.