Women at work and their tips, challenges, advice, complaints, and experiences

This morning Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced the proposal of the largest financial overhaul this country has seen since the 1929 stock market crash and the following Great Depression.

The question that stands before us now is will this proposal be a resolustion to the current banking and mortgage fiascos, or will it be a Pandora's box that will ultimately drive us all over the edge into financial ruin?

Frankly, I'm not really sure on all the potential solutions, since I'm not in the position to read a 218-page financial plan for the country. I'm going to vote with CNNMoney on this one: it's a step in the right direction.  

Personally I'm more than mildly peeved that there are politicos complaining that a plan that seems to be more a long-term issue than a short-term "holy crap, people are losing houses because of predatory lenders and shady mortgage brokers" Band-Aid.  In my mind there are two needs here; the first being something to deal with the immediate lending issues, and the second of a long-term plan that will pull America up by her glorious bootstraps and get her people thinking about NEEDS, not WANTs.

Our grandparents didn't give a rat's tail about buying bigger cars with shiny chrome wheels, the latest iPod offering, or a supersized plasma screen TV.   (And don't tell me that's because they didn't have them - you know what I mean.)  This is what happens when a society focuses on being consumer-based: we consume everything.

And I don't mean "consume" as in "oh, we go out and buy stuff".  I mean we consume - we devour - we annihilate.  Here's the word of the day to meditate on: consume.

Somebody's got to create a plan of action that will stop the madness, so to speak.  At least it's an attempt.  Now let's wait and see what sort of stuff politicos try to add into it as they debate and shred the whole concept.  Will they make it better?  Make it worse?  

What do you think?