With only 16 days left until the US presidential election I still don't know who to vote for. Well I should re-phrase that; I don't want to vote. I don't have any anxiety about going to the polling place and voting, it's just that I don't want Obama or McCain to be president. To me they both seem to be socialists. Obama wants to spread the wealth(giving tax money[money I worked hard for] to lazy people who go the the gov't for handouts), and McCain wants the federal gov't to buy up "bad mortgages" so people wont be evicted. How long before the gov't wants to own my house even though I'm making all payments on time? How long before I can't make payments because Obama is taking too much of my money to give to people who just wont work? I don't believe either candidate can fix the economy with bailout(ie tax) money.
A house is only worth what people are willing to pay for it. If a house sold for $200k 10 years ago, that doesn't mean the price will go up forever. If that homeowner wants to sell it today for $230k and only gets offers around $140k then that's what the house is worth. Some would say that's not fair and the gov't should buy the rest of the mortgage so the seller won't be in the red. But would it be fair to bailout a homeowner if their home value went down because of poor school district performance? or an issue with eminent domain where a highway is built next to a home? I don't think would be fair, and I say this as a homeowner who's property is adjacent to an abandoned rail line. If the railroad ever decided to reactivate this line and noisy trains roll through at all hours of the night my property value probably would drop and I would be upset about it. But the gov't shouldn't "bail me out" if I wanted to sell my house and only received offers less than what I paid.
What the US needs in a president is someone who will let the free market adjust now and work on passing legislation to prevent the current econmonic situation from happening again in the future. I don't think in the next 16 days Obama or McCain will pander to people who think like I do. So as of now neither one is getting my vote.
*please note I base all of this on nothing other than all the crap I've seen on the evening news, heard on talk radio, or read on other blogs so there's a good chance I'm 99% wrong.
