Responsibility is Underrated
Personal responsibility and accountability seems to be a notion of the past. Why not take any responsibility for your own actions when you can so easily blame someone else for your mistakes, miscalculations or ignorance? We blame fast food businesses when we get fatter, we blame schools when our kids are failing, we blame the lender when we borrow more than we can pay back., we blame cigarette companies for our declining health, we sue McDonald’s because their mascot entices children to eat their food…seriously…what gives? Blaming others for our mishaps is so common place it’s practically a cultural phenomenon. The government can require all regulated industries to post every possible warning and combination of warnings that can be considered and you’d still have activists and politicians claiming that people are being unfairly charged or forced to consume 5000 calories a day in sweet, sugary treats and sodas. They’d also have you believing that gluttony isn’t a personal choice and borrowing is an illness or personality disorder. While temptation does exist, as human beings, we have the ability to problem solve and the capacity to educate ourselves for the purpose of making what we believe is the best decision. Instead, we take what’s known as the path of least resistance. Just do it…and blame someone else when you don’t receive the desired outcome. Then we’re relieved of all guilt, shame, accountability, and liability. Great! Right? I would say most certainly not. How long before we become this litigious, self-consumed, finger-pointing society or are we there yet?
Senator Hagan in all of her infinite wisdom had a method of persuasion that included telling the story of a woman whose $200 payday loan escalated into $8,000 in fees and six different loans. Of course this is probably the most extreme example that Hagan could find in her repertoire but it’s still a “true” story. Unfortunately, my thought wasn’t,”oh poor woman…how dare those lenders lend her the money that she asked them for because her husband was unemployed.” I’m sure this is the reaction she was hoping to get from her audience. Instead, my first thought was, “why would anyone take out five different loans if they didn’t have the means to pay back the first one?” My second thought was,”where would she have gone if payday loans weren’t available?” This story only proves that there is a need for short-term credit and it’s unfortunate that people will use payday loans when they need them but scream bloody murder when they get themselves in over their head.
In all honesty, how concerned would politicians be about consumer access to credit (or lack thereof) if there weren’t any institutions offering short-term services? I’m not saying that political interests influence all decisions but more often than not, in my opinion.
No comments yet.