The Sheep & The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

This one has been bugging me for months and months and I've been trying to think of some way to get it out of my system. The obvious place might seem to be right here, where it's ended up, but I kinda let this site slip in a big way over the last couple of years - it hasn't been updated, so I figured, it needed to be somewhere else. A couple of months on, I've decided to put it here, because, if nothing else, it'll be out of my system, well kinda anyway....

The Great British Public - well probably MOST publics, but it's the British one I live in so.... The great british public - I think it's time you all painted your faces black, and put on a white wooly coat cos you're a bunch of sheep....

Northern Rock - a long standing, well established, well trusted financial organisation, is pretty much in the toilet. Why? Because people CAN'T (or won't) think for themselves, or when they do, they ignore the FACTS and substitute their opinions in place, then consider them facts, because, after all, you're NEVER wrong, are you.....

There was a story, in the press, saying that maybe, possibly Northern Rock wasn't quite as financially sound as it could be and might be in some kind of trouble. Banks are actually pretty simple businesses. They take your money for safekeeping. They lend out your money - and charge interest on that money - this is how they make money - they are, after all a business. In order to keep banks and building societies finacially stable, they're only allowed to lend out a percentage of the money they have in savings accounts. Here's what happened, in a nutshell. There was a rumour which said they were in trouble and people's money MIGHT be at risk. People all went BAAAAAA and ran down and took out their money as fast as they could. Suddenly, surprise, surprise, the bank DIDN'T have enough money to cover the loans they'd issued - remember, they lend out YOUR money, and make a profit on it, and that's how you get free banking, and with interest on your money - they don't have a magical bottomless pit of money they like giving away - they're paying you interest as a thankyou for letting them make money on your money.

The really annoying thing about this is that, basically, the people who were worried about the situation - after they'd been told OVER AND OVER that the money WAS safe, and guaranteed by the government, decided that they knew better, so took the money out anyway. These sheep, I mean people, sorry, probably then sat back a week or two later when the bank really WAS in financial trouble and said "See, I was right to take out my money - they ARE in trouble". What they SHOULD be saying, what the TRUTH of the matter is, is that they CAUSED the problem. If they'd just shut up, sat back, and listened to what they were being told, then there would never have been a problem in the first place. In other words, we have a bunch of morons, sorry, the British Public, causing their own problems, and then, of course, expecting other members of the British Public to bail them out with taxpayers money. Guess what bright sparks - that's right - you, the muppets who caused the problem, then sat back all smug saying "See I WAS right" will now have to pay EXTRA tax, to pay for the problems that YOU caused. Congratulations. Your money was always safe. You just now have less of it, thanks to tax, for NO GOOD REASON!

There is one more thing (isn't there always). After all of the above happened. After everyone found out that there WAS no risk. There WAS no danger to their money, Bradford and Bingley found themselves in the same situation. There was a rumour of problems. Of course, the sheep all realised that, last time it was a big false alarm so didn't all run down to empty the bank - right? WRONG - muppets did the same thing again. Strike another major bank, hundreds of jobs, local conveniences etc etc. Guess what. The government now has to bail out B&B - with YOUR TAX MONEY - you did it again. For NO good reason, you just blew some of your OWN money by being self-important, uneducated arrogant muppets who 1. Don't listen, and 2. Don't learn from your OWN experiences.

One word for the lot of ya - BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!