It's a wonderful life has always been my favorite movie of all time. It is so for many reasons... from the wonderful cast of my favorite leading man, Jimmy Stewart, and his sexy, (in that school mom sort of way) co-star, Donna Reed, to the wonderful story line that has yet to be duplicated. What if we had never been born and how each person's life, no matter how insignificant it may seem, affects others. A true tear jerker no matter how many times I've seen it. But most importantly, the lesson it teaches us in regards to good vs. evil as George continues to battle the powerful Mr. Potter in order to maintain the dignity of the Bailey Savings & Loan, a small time operation started by his father, Peter and whose success is based on it's investment in people rather than the almighty dollar. Those sure were the good old days!
This week, our country has been held at gunpoint as we wait for Congress, (the idiots who helped get us in this mess in the first place) come up with a way to save the fat cat, greed mongers on Wall Street at the taxpayer's expense. It's kind of funny isn't it, I've actually had my credit card company send me an invoice for .42 cents after paying off a bill. What nerve, now they're asking me for a $700 billion bailout...! There's plenty of fault to go around, from the ruthless mortgage broker who would do whatever it took to get someone into a mortgage they could not afford in order to get those outrageous broker's fees. Then there are the mortgage companies themselves who bundle these loans and sell them to Wall Street, without having any idea who the people are behind them, nor do they care....and here then lies the problem.
The day of the local neighborhood bank, such as the Bailey Savings & Loan, are gone. The days when the bank manager decided who got a loan and who didn't, based not only on their financial background, but most importantly, on the person and their character. He or she knew your name, family background, job history, how much money you had in the bank and what kind of a risk you would be. Call it a hunch or call it intuition, but I bet their method of "sharing the wealth" was a lot more affective than Wall Streets. When there was almost a run on the Bailey Savings & Loan, George was able to keep everyone calm and convinced them, by name, their money was safe, invested in the homes of their Bedford Falls neighbors. When I call my mortgage company, it takes me 20 minutes to get to speak to a human being and when I do, it's some call center in India.
Maybe this is one of those "everything happens for a reason" moments....perhaps we have to experience such ciaos in order to get back to basics....after all, everything old becomes new again and eventually comes back in style. Hopefully we can all survive until common sense makes a come back, but in the mean time, we'll always have this timeless classic....enjoy!
