I was talking to someone a few days ago about the American economic situation and it seems the AIG, housing, banking issue hitting our economy is nothing more than Americans doing two unhealthy things; being greedy and trying to get a 'bargain.' I put bargain in quotes because it can cover a lot of ground but simply defined would be a situation where someone tried to get something for nothing or as little as possible without looking at the long term consequences.

Right now I'm trying to earn money for a car. I k now I have to have enough for the car, possible payments, gas, upkeep, insurance and all those other little things that can crop up when you get a car. The conversation about the economy, frankly, came up when this co-worker showed up at the bus stop with me. She had bought a used car some months ago and it has given her problems. She had to take the bus because the car broke down again. She had just replaced the alternator, getting it from a junk yard, which replaced another one that had died. A month earlier another part failed on the car. Not to say all of the issues happened because of the car being used, but what she thought was a good bargain at the time has cost her a lot more than she bargained for. She's nowhere near the cost of getting a new car, however she realizes had she waited, she could have gotten a better used car rather than the bargain she got, which in the long term has cost her more.

That's exactly why so many people are losing their homes. They got a house thinking it would be a bargain, ignoring the balloon cost that were written into the contract. The assumption was the value would go up or they would move out but the downturn hit and people were stuck.

I'm amazed at calls I get from work when we ask for verification, which means we need the last few digits of the credit card number. Maybe on ¾ of the calls people will say 'oh I have so many cards I have no idea which one I used.' Now, we're not talking rich people calling up. These are regular folks with regular jobs and they have 3 or more credit cards to go through to try and remember what they made a purchase with.

Right now I have 2 debit cards. I didn't want the second one, but it came with the new bank account I had to set up. So unlike a lot of people calling I have 2 cards and they are directly tied to an account. No money no item.

I had to make adjustments, and maybe not the adjustments I'd like to have,  but what I've done keeps me out of debt. I can't spend more than I have because the credit isn't tied to that. I'd love to get a car, maybe a new car, but I don't want to spend $200-$400 a month for years just on the car, not counting incidentals.

One thing we don't do as Americans is say no to things we don't need. I understand splurging, and I do it myself, but we can't think about getting things we can't use or afford. There was a recent 'expose' story about vacuum cleaner sales people and 'scare' tactics. They showed the kindly older couple who spend $2600 four years ago for a high end vacuum cleaner. First of all, I don't know why this story was so urgent since the product was bought four years ago, but in any case the story went into full 'action investigation' mode, with the rigged out house with cameras, the background research to catch the sales person in lies, and the ambush interview. Yes, all dramatic and on the surface made the sales person look real bad.

Of course, the simple question wasn't asked in the whole story; if the person didn't need a vacuum cleaner, why didn't they say no? Why buy a $2600 machine when you can go to Target or Walmart and get one, a good one, for a couple of hundred dollars? The story made it out about old people being ripped off but just saying no would have solved the whole issue.

Our economy is suffering because we aren't saying no to things. We buy things we want and we get them without thinking. When I say we I mean on all levels, from the banks who give out loans to people who can't afford it to the credit card companies giving cards to fresh off the bus college students to us, who know its too good to be true and take it because we think we can get one over. It all contributes to the mess we're in.