Feb
4
Housing Crisis and the Memory Hole
Filed Under Politics
After years of following politics and being open-minded to all points of view, it seems the most popular positions are rarely the most accurate.
A politician can be right about consequences of policies and “predict the future” and it won’t make a difference. Even in the age of information overload, YouTube, internet accessible voting records, no one seems interested in accuracy. The proof I offer is this forgotten 2 minute speech by a politician who in September 2003 predicted:
1. Taxpayer bailout of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac
2. Overinvestment in the housing market as a result of government artificially stimulating demand for housing
3. “Painful” crash in housing
This speech was literally five years ahead of its time.
There is short-term bias in the newsmedia. It is not the media’s fault; it is the natural, predictable consequence of individuals choosing to accept this medium of news rather than discovering truths on their own.
Take a look at Huffington Post; their front page is screams like a tabloid. Since our national attention span is microscopic, we miss the fact that there are some that warned of dire economic consequences years ago which have come true. They are hardly mentioned or interviewed since the media and the public has moved on to newer stories.
The lesson that I have learned from seeing this cycle play out over and over again is: Who do you choose to connect with and learn from? Whoever’s popular in the polls? Whoever your friends follow? The most popular/influential person? Or thoughtful, reasoned thinkers? Seek out these sources and take action to benefit from them. By reading intelligent and openly opinionated thinkers on all sides of an argument it is easy to distill what facts are relevant to certain arguments and which facts aren’t. This is essential to getting a clearer picture of reality.
Thanks for reading.
To read more about our economic issues, read here.
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