What a Thanksgiving!
Standing over the stove, my sister’s partner, always the
most conservative member of our clan, asked me how business was doing. I didn’t want to be a damper on the
festivities, but I thought I could say something general, so I mumbled, “Well,
with the economy being the way it is…”
He interrupted me, saying, “It’s not the economy—“
Both of us picked up, in unison “It’s the financial
system!”
Then, I almost fell over as he revealed, “I’ll tell you
something,. I don’t think I’m a capitalist anymore. I think we need a seriously regulated economy, so this will
never, ever, be allowed to happen again. It wasn’t the failure of a few… I mean, everyone’s looking
for a perpwalk, for somebody to blame, but it’s the whole system that caused
this to happen.”
This Thanksgiving was the holiday when I stopped being known
as the family party pooper.
Unfortunately,
it’s taken a lot of pain—and lots more to come—for the lure of easy,
unregulated financial deals and no government taxation on their profits to
become apparent for what it has always been— a shell game for the advantaged to
steal from common folk.
After a conversation about the path to ruin we’ve all just
traveled, it was me, for a change, who ended up cutting us short. “Let’s move on to more
pleasant topics. We don’t want to
put a damper on the day.”
If you live long enough, you get to experience-and do- a lot of things you never
imagined.