What Matters

[Justin La Cour]

What really matters in this election? Is it the economy? The War in Iraq? Global Warming? Energy? Every person seems to have there own feelings about what is important in this years election. But when I told my friend that I had to write a paper on an issue that concerned the people the most for this election. My friend Sean immediately stated that he wanted to be interviewed and has opinion noted. He is a freshman at Westmont University in Santa Barbara, California. He stated that he is deeply concerned about the economy.
Originally Sean is from Phoenix, Arizona and has said he has seen many homes in his neighborhood foreclosed due to the recent bank failures and the homeowners inability to pay for the loans they have. About three years ago the housing market in Arizona was one of the fastest growing in the nation. People could not even find a house to buy, the houses were selling so quickly. He started saying that at one point during the housing market boom there were people knocking on his door asking if they would sell them there house.
Continuing our conversation he explained why he has become increasingly frustrated with our banking system and there desire to capitalize on people.
He gave a variety of examples of this destructive activity saying that many of the banks were giving people loans they couldn’t afford and capitalizing on the people with high interest rates. But he stated that the banks are not just the only people to blame in this fiasco. Also the people must be blamed as well for this crisis because of what he believes is the people’s greed.
People began buying houses that they couldn’t afford when they should have been buying homes that they could afford. He began talking about the bailout bill and how this would effect us and he said that the banks needed to have some more repurcussions for there actions instead of just giving them taxpayer money. What he believes is that when the government has to step in on an issue like this that we are all going to suffer the consequences. After this statement I could tell that he was becoming a little enraged by some of the things that we were just talking about. But after a couple of minutes I let him cool down a little and catch his breath a few minutes after we continued our conversation. He began explaining that with the banking system the way it is that he may have trouble staying in school because his school like all schools in California are very expensive. He is deeply concerned because he is not sure that the banks now will give him the fair loans he needs to pay for college. Now with many banks having to be bought out by larger banks he is worried that with this increased spending that the economy could go into a major recession.
But what Sean seems to want the most is, a politician that will be honest and uprfront to the people and tell him when the country is in trouble until waiting until the last possible moment to say that the countries finances are in trouble. He has been watching the debates of both candidates avidly but he can see both of them just give vague answers instead of giving them strait forward this is whats going to happen answers. He is worried that both of these politicians once in office will just do have there own agenda and not listen to the people. But all that Sean and the rest of the public can do right now is wait and see what happens and hope for the best.

[Marissa Silva-Garcia]

I agree that the economy is one of the main conerns in this years election. It is very frustrating to know that people get loans and homes that they know they cannot afford. I too have been wanting to hear exactly what the two candidates plans are because like sean said, they have just been giving vague answers. Its sad to know that because of peoples greed, it may affect people like sean just trying to go to school. Why should we have to pay for their consequences!? Its hard to really know what to expect when one day its "everythings ok" than the next, we are in trouble. I hope there will be some kind of fix in the economy so the rest of us dont have to keep suffering.

[Jessica]

Well we all know that the hot topic today is the economy! everyone is talking about and everyone is being affected for it. Of course is affecting all of us some way or another. I would like to see as well what the candidates are going to do about the big economy problem. Is hard now to be scared of the banks, the place we called to be "secure" now is the worse place to put our money since we dont even know if is going to be safe and if it is going to be there once we need it.Its crazy how it can affect people that just want to study and suceed in life. My only hope is that someone can do something, find a way to fix the economy and make it stop so it doesnt affect more and more each day.

[Bianca Vargas]

your friend is write it is also peoples fault because of their greed and competitivness. people are always looking to see what they have better than the next person. they should just stick to homes that they know they can pay. what does it matter how much it costs or how good it looks. what matters is that you can afford it and wont get foreclosed. you can say that americas greed is what is also bringing the economy down. You had a very good topic i was very enlightened by it.

[Maria]

Like everyone knows the Economy is the main hot topic or concern and everyone is been affected by this issue in many different ways like some people are worried about loosing their houses, others are worried about losing their jobs or like the students like your friend Sean been concerned of not been sure that the banks will give them the fair loans that they need to pay their college tuition. Now everyone is so concern about the economy but in some point we the people are the ones who got ourselves in trouble like the ones who bought houses and now can’t afford them all of this happened to this people because the greed why can’t we just be happy with what we can afford we always try to buy expensive houses even thought we know we can afford them but we do that because we always want to have better stuff than other people and that’s not a good idea.

[morgen smart]

as the bible says money is the root of all evil. I agree and belive this is partly to blam why we are in this mess. I guess we are all feeling a little worried about what the canidates are gonna do. I wonder how long it will be till we dnt have to suffer anymore

[Alyssa A Gonzalez]

The bible actually says that the LOVE of money is the root of all evil, but i do agree. The blame doesn't fall solely on the banks it also falls on the people who went through with the loans. The people who knew deep down that they couldn't afford the payments but because they wanted to keep up with the Jones family they did it anyways.

[Kyle Zimmer]

I could imagine how enraged your friend got talking about this subject. It seems like the economy is a hot topic with everybody right now, either because of the banks stupidity, or just plain greed. I live in a pretty nice neiborhood but the role over in neihbors right now is pretty wild. Everyone is struggling it seems like to try and keep their head up. I hate the thought of the government bailing out people's unwise choises. Everybody VOTE!