Having talked about almost every other goddam embarassing thing that no one in their right mind would talk about in public, because somebody needed to say it, I'm not going to back away from talking a bit more about this one: the way grim levels of personal and student debt keep people from settling down and having families.
The issue ticks me off almost as much as who's currently addressing it, which happens to be the loathsome Family Research Council. Here's the title of an FRC lecture scheduled for this coming Friday:
"The Crushing Burden Of Student Loans On Family Formation For Generation X+"
A-frakking-men.
On top of the consumer credit burden the typical American has racked up to compensate for stagnant wages, years of budget cuts have left the last 10-15 years worth of US students starting their working life under a mountain of debt. It takes its toll.
Now here's the thing, I know that neither the Family Research Council, nor the creepy, sheet-sniffing Tony Perkins character who runs it, nor the Republicans they support, give a damn about people like me and they have no real solutions to offer for our situations. They all purport to hate college graduates as much as they hate uppity women and brown people and gays, and they have hated themselves into a state of deep, deep stupid. But they'll at least bloody well talk about this, while Democrats won't.
So in view of saving this party of bank-licking dimwits from their own ignorance, let's talk.
The banking lobby still holds enough sway inside the Beltway to torpedo sensible consumer protection rules, even after releasing a flood of predatory mortgages that kicked off the current economic crisis. On issues ranging from payday loans to subprime mortgages, the banking industry continues to successfully defend itself against new regulations that would protect the consumer. As if that weren't outrage enough, the finance lobby has also joined other corporate interest groups to fund misinformation campaigns that smear unions and block wage growth.
While the national economy struggles under the weight of a massive bank bailout effort, the banking lobby's ability to influence public policy is more problematic than ever. The too-big-to-fail bankers may be dependent on U.S. taxpayers for their survival, but corporate lobbyists still have members of Congress, the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve asking the banks' permission to bring the Big Finance behemoths under control. The relationship between Wall Street and the government is so out of whack that it's difficult to distinguish the political players from the panhandlers.
The sickening feeling of drift - the sense that policymakers are refusing to face hard facts, and are dithering while the world economy burns - just keeps getting stronger.
It's not just America drifting. Hopefully someone starts an engine soon. Money is free, and banks aren't buying.
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