Latest Rasmussen Poll: 30% of Americans Are Stupid

All right, that is not what he said.  Instead, he said that 70% of Americans think that banks should only loan to people who can pay them back:

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 73% of Adults feel that Americans borrowing too much money is a bigger problem for the economy that that a lack of available credit. Just 17% now see a lack of available credit as the bigger economic problem. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

Sixty-six percent (66%) see people getting loans they can’t afford to pay back as a bigger problem than some people not being able to get the loans and credit they need. Only 22% think people not getting loans and credit they need is a bigger problem. These views haven’t changed in over two years.

Given the other findings, it’s no surprise that just 19% of Americans believe banks should be encouraged in the current economic environment to lend money more freely. Seventy percent (70%) say banks should be encouraged instead to lend money only to those best able to repay the loans. Again, these views remain essentially unchanged since April two years ago.

Most Americans think their fellow countrymen need to cut back on their credit card usage and other borrowing but don’t feel they personally have a borrowing problem.

Overall confidence in housing values has plummeted, with the number who say their home is worth more than what they owe on their mortgage lower than ever.

The current figures have not changed significantly since April 2009.

Essentially, what we have here is a a finding that most Americans have more common sense about money matters than at least half of Congress.  This is far and above out of proportion with the general make-up of Congress which leads me to wonder if they actually do represent the people who voted for them or just the special interests lobbies who bribe them.  I think we know this answer.

The fact is, there are very strict controls on the banking industry and have been in place for nearly a century.  Once the era of free banking ended with the rise of the Federal Reserve, there has been nothing but regulations and false guarantees from the government that all came to a head back in 2008.

How stupid do you have to be to not understand that if you are unlikely to pay a bank back after getting a loan from them, then the bank should be under no obligation to pay you?  If you were to loan money to a friend who could not hold a job to save his life, would you expect to be paid back?

A bank’s loan officer has to assess the risk of the person he is loaning money to.  This is because every loan made by a bank is really an investment on the potential future income of the potential debtor.  This is also why bad risks suffer from higher interest, since riskier debtors may not pay the loan in its entirety.

This does not excuse the banks in anyway mind you.  They were the ones who made the bad loans and then attempted to salvage the potential loss by lying to other investors.  Nor does this excuse the Federal government as they had all the tools needed to monitor and remedy the problem before it became a supposed economic crushing problem.

While I still tend to not trust polling data, I look at these with a little hope for the future of this nation.  Even if Rasmussen is off by 15% in relation to the general population, that means that there still is a clear majority of individuals outside of the oligarchy who understand the dire situation and how to fix.  This country is made great by the sensible people living in it, not the government leaders who presume to rule over them.  It is the work of like-minded individuals who will curb and resolve the current depression we are in.  It looks like the days of easy credit are drawing to a close.  If you were to look at the statistics on the nation’s debt, you would find that household debts are decreasing at a rapid rate.

So while the government leaders at every level continue to borrow and spend at increasing rates with no reason to stop and no end in sight, the American people are positioning themselves to avoid the inevitable credit collapse of the nation.  Besides, the best thing one can do to acquire wealth is to get out of debt and stay out of debt in all its malicious forms.