The pain I have recently felt from the cracking of my nest egg is moderated only slightly by my amusement over how many people have suddenly turned into experts on the world of finance.
I may not be an expert either, but I am fairly certain about the following two things. One, people sure do seem to hate "Wall Street" and, two, there has been no better way to build wealth over the last 100 years than by investing in "Wall Street." I am less disheartened by the recent returns on my stocks than I am by the chorus of attacks launched against the "bailout," not because it's a poorly devised plan but simply because people are outraged by the idea of helping the investment markets.
Yes, regulation is needed and crooks must be rooted out. But please everyone, can we get over our irrational fear of the stock market? I know this crisis has been described as our economic 9/11 but must people behave just as hysterically? I expect everyone associated with Wall Street to be hauled off to Guantanamo Bay any day now. Sadly, the comparison ends there. There has been more hand wringing in Congress and the press over committing money to help the economy then there was to commit money and American lives to a foolish war.
So, when you're done bashing the concept of bailing out the "fat cats," take a few seconds to absorb the following. Yes, many wealthy people invest and work on Wall Street, but, not everyone who invests in the stock market is rich.
Many Americans are small investors who are trying to eke out a nest egg for themselves and their children and untold numbers of retirees live off their dividends and pensions. In addition, according to The Bureau Of Labor Statistics, 86% of all government employees and half of all private industry workers participate in a retirement plan. That means that a lot more Americans are dependent on the health of "Wall Street" than "Main Street" seems to know. And that's just the direct impact from falling stock prices. I am not even counting how secondary fallout from Wall Street failures (like, say, job losses) would impact people's financial security.
The problem is that too many people do not take an active interest in their investments so they don't think of themselves as investors. Sadly, fear generated by times like these and a lack of understanding about the market only increases the divide between the haves and have nots. You may win the lottery. Or you may grow up to be Alec Baldwin. But the odds are, if you are ever going to become rich, you have a much better opportunity to do it through wise investing begun at an early age.
We need to educate our children early about how to manage investments. As soon as they can learn basic math, they should begin to learn about business. I'm talking Elementary School education, folks. I can think of very little that will better prepare them to survive in our capitalist nation than that.
To be sure, there are corrupt or foolish practices on Wall Street that need to be stopped. A large, well informed and investment active populace can only help the oversight. Heck, it's clear now that 535 members of Congress barely understand how the market works. We can't count on them, so, as usual, we need to take care of ourselves.
"Wall Street" is not the enemy. It's a marketplace. Individual companies and individual CEOs are to blame as well as greedy Americans who bought more home than they could afford. To blame the market itself is like blaming the candy store because your son ate too much candy and got a stomach ache.