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Obama's? McCain's? Republicans? Democrats? Wall Street?
How about yours? And mine?
This election, this financial mess, our perilous future comes down to one basic principle that we've lost sight of: Individual responsibility.
Everyone likes the notion of reward. We've managed to delude ourselves that there is something called riskless reward.
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, capitalism's confessed savior, admitted as much last week. His mistake wasn't in believing in the machinery of free markets but in understimating the imperfection of those operating the levers.
Greenspan and many of us assumed that the risk of failure would prevent us from sticking our necks out too far.
Wrong.
Subprime mortgages created risk, which was diluted by turning those mortgages into securities that could be traded. We ratcheted up the ante by creating the means of betting on who would succeed and who would fail.
We turned finance and investing into a big roulette wheel and stood with our fingers crossed and everything riding on black. Then, finally and predictably, the ball landed on red.
How?
Because consumers and businesses leveraged their future with credit they couldn't afford to pay back.
And too many citizens reneged on their obligation to vote.
And too many shareholders let the foxes in charge of the chicken coop.
And, last but not least, I failed sixth-grade health class.
I confess. There's a huge red "U" (for unsatisfactory) carved in my chest after my partner and I failed to do a book report. I did my part; he didn't. But it wasn't about only me, or him. It was OUR project and WE didn't turn it in. That was the measure by which we were judged and Pat Wright did the only thing he could do - failed BOTH of us.
No one wants to fail. We all want to win. It's in our nature and it's the spark that got us out of caves and improved our wardrobes (most of our wardrobes).
But in order to succeed, we have to be prepared to fail. Then, we have to be able to recognize the risks we take in order to win. Finally, we have to decide if the reward justifies the risk.
That's where our trolley's gone off the tracks.
We let politicians run up huge deficits while greasing our palms with a few pieces of silver to buy our votes and keep us fat, dumb and happy.
We let CEOs run wild as long as they kept those dividend checks coming and the share prices skyrocketing.
We told our kids it doesn't matter if they knew the difference between "every day" and "everyday" because, "We know what you mean."
We've dumbed down the education system to shield our kids from the stigma I endured in sixth-grade health class. We can't hurt their tender feelings, can we? God forbid; just wait until they're adults and fall on their faces, then blame them instead of the "systems" that failed them ... family, community, school, church - all of whom were too busy rooting for black to come up one more time on the roulette wheel.
There's one big difference between then and now. I learned a valuable lesson from that episode 35 years ago. And I never failed another class.
Our current situation didn't sneak up on us. Some knew it was coming. Most of us at least suspected that the punch bowl wouldn't be full forever.
What if every doctor gave every patient a clean bill of health every time they had checkups, even when the doctors had test results that clearly showed that some of them were seriously ill and others were dying?
We accept illness and know that all of us will get sick and, eventually, die. It's not news we look forward to with anticipation but we want to know and do what we can while we can. We want to have a fighting chance.
And if the doctors just smiled and said, "Noooooooo problem. Keep doing what you're doing?" The survivors would run them out of town on rails and find honest ones.
Is the current crisis any different?
No different than that big red "U" on my chest.
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Nick Hoffman is the managing editor of the Courier-Express/Tri-County Sunday. He doesn't literally have a "U" on his chest. It's actually an "S." E-mail nhoffman@thecourierexpress.com.
