The way I see it...

Let me start by saying, I definitely do not know enough about what is going on, but from my limited undestanding here is what seems to be happening...

A bunch on lending institutions made the dumb and quite frankly idiotic decision to lend money to people who had no business borrowing it. The people who borrowed the money were idiots as well, probably overcome by greed and a sense of entitlement. Shockingly enough, these people couldn't make their payments - I know, it boggles the mind how anyone could have seen this happen.

In a free market system, the banks would have gone belly up, and those that borrowed the money should have been screwed. And while I wouldn't wish that on anyone, it's how the free market stops both sides from making stupid decisions again.

Fortunately for these people we don't live with the Free Market system. Contrary to what the Republicans have said in the past, their economic plans are not about a "Free Market System". So to prevent the free market system from running it's natural course, the government steps in with bail outs. I know Mr. Bush said they weren't bail outs, but lets be honest here - Integrity isn't exactly his strongest character trait.

So the government bails out the banks, and from what I understand, some of the banks used this money to make more loans - WHAT?!?!?

Our economy is in the crapper - it's not because the free markey system has failed, it's because we have failed to allow the free market to take care of people with questionable lending tactics. Meanwhile, those of us who purchased a home we could afford, kept our credit scores high, so we could be considered borrowers of acceptable risk, and make our payments on time, just got the middle finger from our government. Thanks guys!

The way I see it, government is going to take our money and spend it however they see fit. Unless of course, we can get a libertarian government in place, or one that holds to the consitution and doesn't seek to feed and expand itself, but I can't see that happening. So the question we are left with when deciding on who to vote for in this election, comes down to who do you want to waste your money.

I think the Republicans will continue to waste the money on wars, helping out their buddies in the large corporations and growing the size and control of government over the American people.

I think the Democrats will spend the money on social welfare and similar entitlement programs, not limited to healthcare and other such things. I think they will also focus on growing the size and control of the government as well.

So do you want your money spent on killing people and making rich men richer, or on creating a welfare state and denying people the opportunity to better themselves, by making them more comfortable to simply suck from the teet of big government. And truth be told, the second may not actually be as bad as the Republicans (themselves closet socialists) would have us believe.

At the end of the day, I think I'd far rather my money was spent on welfare programs than killing people, which is what I think it comes down to. Besides, at the rate things are going, I may be able to benefit more from the social welfare programs in the future.

I would like to vote for a third party this election, either Libertarian or Constitutional, but at the same time, what if my vote only helps push the majority of votes towards a lying warmonger and his clueless running mate. Either way, I think I'm going to get screwed, just like I have been with the economy.