by Grayselegy

Created on: November 17, 2008   Last Updated: August 27, 2010

When the credit and housing bubbles burst in spectacular fashion at the end of 2007, the media began a search for who was to blame. They blamed the poorest people in America. To find out who is really responsible, ask the question that is asked when any crime is committed: Qui Bono - who gains?

A Conspiracy By The Poor?

Assume for a moment that the poor were indeed involved in some dastardly, Machiavellian, wicked plot to separate the innocent financiers from their hard-earned mega-bonuses. They schemed, plotted, and spent an incredible amount of time preparing their evil plan. Well, they couldn't plan it quickly, could they ? After all, they are mostly poor because they aren't smart enough to be rich! Sly as they all undoubtedly are, they managed to keep their secret scheme to ruin the economy away from prying eyes and pricked ears. Perhaps they organised a break-in at the Federal reserve, to switch the printing presses on at full speed, without the knowledge of the unwitting, fiscally prudent Mr Bernanke !

Imagine their shock when they discovered that their fiendish plan to get rich actually impoverished them even more! Oh come on ! Well if it wasn't the poor, then who was it ? There is no shortage of suspects.

Did The Bankers Cause The Crash?

Could it be those banks that offered mortgages, selling the dream of home-ownership to those who could never possibly afford it ? ("Just out of prison? No job? No money - we can give you a mortgage"). Could it be the sharp mortgage sales-men, offering teaser rates with extremely low repayments without warning properly of the future payment hikes? Could it be the Federal Reserve - past and present - that printed so much money that the mortgage market resembled an auction where all the participants were given a million dollars on the way in? Could it be the get-rich-quick buy-to-let brigade, that believed all the hype that property prices only ever go up? Could it be the foreign governments that buy US Bonds to support the billions of dollar per day deficit? Could it be those that "repackaged" sub-prime mortgages and sold them on? Or the Credit Ratings Agencies that certified that such "slices" of sub-prime were "Triple-A"?

Did All Of Us Contribute To The Crash?

The truth is that all of the suspects are partly to blame, as well as many others, the only unknown is the degree to which each is culpable. The innocent parties in all of this, however, are those who have lost their homes as a result of a system that badly let them down. That includes, of course, those hard-working Americans who lost their jobs, having lived perfectly well within their means until the financial tsunami caused by the over-paid hit them.

Is It Un-American To Blame The Poor?

The attempt to blame "the poor" for this crisis is despicable, and un-American. Why ? Because - to paraphrase President Truman - "the buck stops at the top". (When he said "buck", he didn't mean "dollar", although today he would have been right.) He meant that with high office, money and power, comes responsibility. Those that make huge fortunes justify them by claiming they shoulder a larger burden than the masses. Theirs is a hard toil, with much responsibility. It is time for them to take that responsibility.

If the media manage to blame the poorest for this disaster, then we will find the guilty to be innocent, and the innocent to be guilty. If we do that, then like jailing the wrong man for a crime, we allow the guilty to roam free, and free to repeat their crime.

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