From: mulac@daystrom.lerc.nasa.gov (Richard Mulac)
Subject: You get what you deserve
Followup-To: alt.politics.bush,alt.politics.clinton,alt.politics.elections
Organization: NASA Lewis Research Center [Cleveland, Ohio]
Distribution: usa
Date: Sat, 12 Sep 1992 02:15:13 GMT

  Just a comment to all those who want to blame Reagan, Bush, and the
Republicans for every problem in the country.  One big cause of our
economic problems which I don't hear being mentioned is credit cards.
Notice something different in the eighties with respect to credit cards as
compared to the sixties.  In the sixties you had to have a perfect credit
record over several years to even be considered for an oil company card.
Beginning in the eighties just about anyone could get multiple credit cards
with credit lines running into the thousands.  There have been hundreds of
documented cases of minors, unemployed people, even people going through
bankruptcy getting multiple major credit cards.  I believe that the
so-called 'boom' times of the eighties can be attributed to overspending by
consumers with access to easy credit and not to Reagan policies (see, I'm
not biased).  A LOT of people spent so much in the eighties that by the end
of the decade they were so deep in personal debt that they were finding it
hard to make minimum payments.  Bankruptcies soared and consumer spending
dropped dramatically.  This drop in consumer spending caused the recession
which in turn lowered production and increased unemployment.  Bush has
tried to stimulate the economy by lowering interest rates, but most people
are so deep in debt from the eighties that they can't take advantage of it.
What scares me now is the sudden wave of big companies (GM, GE, ATT, etc.)
putting out their own 'brand' of credit cards, trying to squeeze the last
drops of blood from a credit hungry society.  I suppose that it might help
increase consumer spending and get us out of the recession, but I fear it
may put your average consumer into an even deeper debt hole.
  So Reagan can't take credit for the boom years and Bush can't be blamed
for the stagnant years.  People had good times spending like crazy and now
they are going through some pain having to pay for it.  No government could
have stopped what happened, be it Democratic or Republican.  One thing you
can blame Bush for is waiting until now to try and implement policies to
try and move us out of the recession.  But you can't say his ideas are
wrong any more than Clinton's, they haven't been tested.  I see this
election as starting with a clean slate - no incumbent.  Each person will
have to decide whose economic plan they will gamble on.  The right plan had
better be one that helps both the individual and the country eliminate
their respective deficits or this recession will get even deeper.

-- 
Richard Mulac                                     mulac@daystrom.lerc.nasa.gov
NASA Lewis Research Center, 21000 Brookpark Road, MS 5-9, Cleveland, OH  44135
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Well, if (Bill Clinton and Al Gore) are moderates, I'm | These pontifications
a world champion speller." - Vice-President Dan Quayle  |      are my own!    
Newsgroups: alt.politics.bush