Get your hands out of my pockets!

There seems to just be wave after wave of really disgusting news coming out lately about how we, as taxpayers and average citizens, are being picked clean by the clowns who caused the mess that we are in right now.

Lately we have seen several TV and newspaper articles about the excessive charges and interest rate increases on credit cards. I read one article that took the position that it’s our fault as credit card holders that we aren’t profitable enough for the card companies, especially if we pay off our cards on time. They need for us to be late, so that they can charge us late fees and make money on us. Ridiculous! Last night on the TV news, in an interview, the credit card industry spokesperson said that they have had to raise the rates on cards so that they can make a profit, in order to be able to pay back the government loans that bailed them out. So now it’s our fault for saddling them with those nasty bailout debts. Outrageous!

Today I read an article that says that lenders are deliberately holding foreclosed homes off the market as a means of artificially holding prices up (www.tinyurl.com/c3hk8y). Of course this too was couched in “it’s actually good fore the consumers to pay more” terms by the banks’ reps. They don’t want to see us all suffer more by having to give them more bailout money, if the foreclosed homes market sees a price collapse. I feel better, knowing that they are looking out for my best interests by charging me more. Gee, I wish the government had thought of that – Oh, wait, they already did.

So here we are with some credit card rates as high as 29% and foreclosed houses so few that multiple offers are being made on them and it’s all out fault! We should flog ourselves or fast or something in penance for our transgressions. Obviously we are not to be trusted with our own money, so these helpful people will take care of us by taking it from our spend thrifty pockets and putting it to work for the good of America or at least for the good of the banks. After all, we’ve been told over and over that what’s good for the banks is good for America. And we’re all patriots, right? Come on, empty out those pockets for America!