God Bless America

Every time I open a newspaper these days – well OK, no one reads papers anymore, but I do go to their websites, and of course there’s always the 24 hour cable news cycle – the point is every day there’s a news story about some hardworking family from the middle of the country. Usually accompanied by a video or photo of an honest looking blue-collar couple on the verge of tears. Through suppressed rage, the man describes how he has worked hard all his life, and now the same companies that he has entrusted his money to for decades have just thrown his world into chaos. The tearful, yet courageous woman says something to the effect of I’ve never been late once, not since I got the card/loan, and now my payments have tripled over night.

Chuck and Jeanne Lane of Ohio, were recently featured on CNN, and after nearly twenty years with the same credit card account, the good people at Chase Bank, have forced the couple to choose between surgery for Jeanne and college for their son, or Chase’s new extortion scheme.

What virtually every credit company is doing right now is deplorable. With the Exception of Bank of America and Discover, and let me say it takes a lot to get me to say something good about Bank of America, but these two companies have voluntarily frozen their interest rates until the new credit reforms go into place in February. The rest of the Lending institutions around the country appear to be issuing virtually no new credit, and are rushing the gates to come up with innovative ways to fleece their current customers before the regulations close the door on these despicable practices.

The Chase Bank Scam the Lane’s fell into is a particularly nasty example of extortion. The Lane’s were offered the credit card as a low interest credit card. Now that Chase has decided low interest isn’t in their best interest, they have given the Lanes only two real options. Forgo any surgeries and get their son an application at Wall Mart, or be strong armed into staggeringly high new interest rates for their low interest credit card.

God Bless the Free Market Enterprise. To add insult to injury, Chase and the other Members of the Chamber of Commerce are spending billions of dollars to fight a federal consumer protection agency. I’m shocked the fellas over at chase can walk with balls that big.

While I wholeheartedly support socialized medicine, and believe that healthcare and education are not things that should be for profit. I say pay the people who work in these industries well. In fact I believe teachers should make as much money as doctors, and need as much education. I just don’t believe the companies that do business in these arenas should be for profit.

Imagine how much easier it would be for administrators of hospitals and medical facilities to balance their budget, if they didn’t have to generate all that revenue for the rich white guys who own stock in the companies.

The Great American Lie is “If it’s profitable, and it’s legal, than it’s moral.” It truly escapes me how these people can sleep at night. Oh yeah I forgot, on bags and bags of money.