Replace the word "oil" with "housing"

Ms. Morgenson and Letters,
 
I am responding to this Sunday's article by Gretchen Morgenson.

I'm a little guy and a renter which gives me a completely different perspective
on your "borrower divide" thesis.  I am not for the bailouts of EITHER the big
guy or the little guy because I believe in moderation and not living to excess.
I also believe that none of what is happening is a surprise and therefore people
need to take responsiblity for there actions (big and small). While you paint
the little guy as a vicitim they are actually (in most cases) willing
co-conspirators and neither should be helped. 

Case in point, while I agree about curbing upsides to prevent wild downsides had
you suggested that at any dinner party of little guys in the past 5 years in
America with respect to housing prices the Times editorial staff would still be
looking for your last remains.  The little guy doesn't want upside to be curbed
as much as the big guy.  Remember the big guy was once the little guy and is
motivated by the same things just on a grander scale.

Another asset-in-point.  Oil is the opposite of housing.  The little guy wants
to moderate the "upside" (rise in price) but when the bubble bursts you won't
see one little guy calling for government regulation to stop the death spiral in
oil prices.

Just for fun, take any article about either oil prices or the housing collapse
and replace the word "oil" with "housing" (and vice-versa) and you will see how
the little guy is just as greedy and corrupt as the big guy and thereby deserves
equal treatment.

In short the only TRUE solution is to treat both the little guy and big guy
equally, let the punishment happen so people can learn from what us more frugal
little guys already know, that you need to live within your means and to save.
Markets will always fluctuate and the only way to deal with that reality (yest
its a predictable reality) is to be prepared and not act shocked when the next
bubble finally bursts.

Bailouts, also, are never the solution because they only come back later to
haunt you. 

Marc Itzkowitz
Palo Alto, CA