The financial state of the United States as of late has been anything but stellar, in fact it can better be described as nosediving. But where did this financial crisis arise from? What actions prompted so many banks to give out ever-increasingly risky loans? Why were so many banks and other companies climbing over each other in the attempt to profit off of anything and anyone at the least amount of expense?

Greed. Pure, unadulterated, unchecked greed.

This aristocratic era that America seems to be willing to submit into stands for everything that the forefathers of the country fought against. No longer is the notion that people are allowed the opportunity to pursue happiness but rather that they are given it because they deserve it based on some metric which they created – a sort of lie to themselves. This notion was implanted into the subconscious by the multitude of advertising everywhere, movies and TV programs, and general behavior condoned and supported by our elected government. The idea given is that being American is a right; being American means belonging to the “greatest country on the planet” and as a result everyone deserves a 2,000 square foot home, a 600 cubic foot automobile, access to credit cards, a flat screen TV in every room and a cell phone no matter how incompetent, inefficient or otherwise unproductive they are to society. This is a pipe dream that, of course, anyone is willing to submit to at first glance because we are all inherently lazy, but it should be quickly ignored with the realization that nothing is free. Despite this, the “American right” was believed by small numbers – mainly those whose luck was running out or turned to “guns and religion.” Corporations who were out to turn profits quickly caught on to this growing epidemic and exploited the situation, offering risky loans to people to make purchases they could not repay. This could not be further from the ideals written into the justification for the colonies to rebel against England. The entire idea was to give people the opportunity to succeed without having to compete against firms that produced nothing. Nobody wants to buy an American car; nobody wants to use plastic discs to listen to their music from; and yet, we – the population as a whole and our government – are wasting our time and money trying to save these sort of failed business models. This is basic microeconomics: Firms which are able to profit while producing goods and selling them to people who are willing to buy at a fair price will survive. Why are we convinced that these companies which have demonstrated that they are unable to turn a profit are entitled to their income. Let capitalism take its course, let these firms fail and free up the resources that they were using for other more innovative firms.