Necessity

"Necessity never made a good bargain."

Benjamin Franklin (1705-1790)

You ever notice that this is how gubment works?

Here is the process:

Gubment creates a disaster.

Let's take banking. It happens slowly. Centuries of successful banking practices, proven through experience and data, needed changing. It was a necessity.

First came "racial steering." Realtors and brokers could no longer steer prospective buyers to or from certain neighborhoods. Civil rights laws were "changing," crime statistics were "changing," and there was no longer a need to promote or prevent certain people to or from neighborhoods.

Of course people's attitudes had to change too, hence the steering laws. It was a necessity.

Then there was the new gubment mandate called "redlining." The gubment said you can't draw a "red line" around a neighborhood on the disadvantaged side of town and refuse to lend money to borrowers there.

But what if it's a bad risk? No problem - there will be no discrimination based on location, race or income level. It was a necessity.

And the gubment needed to help people buy houses and start businesses! Laws and agencies sprung up like a garden of flowers. For decades.

Then in the 90s it was suddenly discovered in the Constitution that housing was a right! This engendered and promoted a "national home ownership strategy," as "the American dream." And if banks didn't play right with the other kids, they would face - the gubment! It was a necessity.

(Don't get this wrong - the banks were finding plenty of opportunity here to make money, despite these non-market "techniques" they were using... and all with a wink and a nod by gubment...)

This of course all continued until recently, with a Congressman for years screaming, "We mutht pwovide houthing fow evewy perthon, no mattah what! Theah aw no banking pwoblemth! We don't need no thtinkin documentathun!" It wath a nethethity.

And the bubble eventually burst! OUT OF NECESSITY!

Was this the only financial problem gubment had created during these decades? Obviously not. It was only a part! But look at how the gubment has responded in the past few years just to this one. At every step, something had to be done out of necessity or the world would collapse.

Have we the people gotten a good bargain? I say no! Franklin would certainly say no!

Watch all the programs we will need coming up to "fix" the various messes that somehow happened while "fixing" the other messes. It will all be out of necessity and a very bad bargain.

Well, for everything but gubment.