Other Views: Neighbors helping out neighbors works
Many Americans are coming to the realization that federal failure bailouts, initiated by former President George W. Bush and continued by President Barack Obama, don't seem to work. They require taking money from hard-working Americans, to prop up some of the most poorly managed and irresponsible businesses the world has ever seen.
But not all bailouts are evil. A growing number involve private citizens and businesses identifying problems and then trying to solve them with money that's given, rather than confiscated through federal indebtedness.
All over the country, businesses are finding ways to lower prices and offer bargains - even free meals at some chain restaurants on occasion - that benefit consumers.
Perhaps the greatest example of Americans trying to privately resolve the nation's financial crisis is Marilyn Mock, who founded the Foreclosure Angel Foundation. In November of 2008, Mock learned her neighbor was about to lose her home to foreclosure. So Mock attended the auction, bought the home, and sold it back to the neighbor at the unimaginably low auction price. The neighbor will pay Mock back as she is able, without interest.
That one famous act of neighborly love and kindness worked so well that Mock put together a foundation in which money is raised privately so that others losing homes to foreclosure may also buy them at the auction price.
The United States has never been a culture built on crisis and victim status. It was founded as a culture of the strong, a place where individuals would work together freely.
One neighbor freely assisting another preserves freedom, because it resolves voluntarily a problem that could otherwise result in a government resolution - which always results in less individual freedom.
If the United States recovers from the greatest financial challenge since the Great Depression, it will be through the efforts of strong private citizens, people like Marilyn Mock, who see a problem and decide to solve it themselves.
