"Inside Job" - The Documentary

I've always heard I must be careful what I wish for. Right now I'm all pumped up after watching the documentary "Inside Job" -- a great view of how the financial collapse of 2009-2010 came about. This "excitement" makes me wish I could teach an economics course with a firm ethical infrastructure to elementary and middle school kids. After watching, I think it's essential to our future. Have you seen the documentary "Inside Job?" If not, take a look at the website and then rent the DVD.
http://bit.ly/9GplYy
I watched it a second time hoping thatI'd be able to get some help sorting out the mess it presents. Unfortunately the second look made me feel even more helpless.

The documentary makes me feel as if there is little anyone can do to convince a billionaire that he or she is making too much money or is doing anything wrong in amassing such fortunes. One part of that documentary seems to make a very strong argument that these extremely wealthy people want even more. Much more.

But the worst part isn't even clearly detailed in the documentary, but became clearer to me as I watched. For me, the worst part is the realization that the filthy rich can only get that way because of my own deeply rooted desire to consume things. This documentary simply confirmed my belief that it is my own desires combined with the individual desires of everyone just like me who buy their stuff -- I "buy" their cars (actually borrow money to use their cars), borrow money to live in their houses, and I even borrow money to eat (by telling myself I deserve to go out and add $100 to the credit card so I can take a family of four to eat $10 worth of food at a fancy restaurant. I never really feel like I "own" anything.

Sometimes I want to blame others -- leaders I used to have faith in like Obama, but this article ( http://huff.to/cCxtrq ) in the Huffington Post tags the dashed hopes many of us once held high -- those are gone. We believed he'd help fix at least some of the financial problems, but he did not. We were wrong. According to the documentary "Inside Job" Obama put the same people responsible for the financial collapse in charge of his financial team. These same people have been in powerful positions for decades and making the same mistakes over and over again. Maybe it is impossible to fight against the monopoly the financial leaders who control billions of dollars. Maybe Obama is on the take, or too ignorant to understand this complex problem, or too busy to spend time trying to resolve this minor issue. Regardless, I don't get the feeling that any of these "leaders" actually care about us or our labels ("poor," "middle-class," "wealthy," or whatever) -- as long as we just keep on consuming. Buy more Coke, buy more Pepsi, buy more beer, download more songs and apps, order stuff online, just keep buying.

So what can we do? Encourage more regulation? Who will help with this? Obama and his clan? If not, in whom can we have faith? "Inside Job" lists some ideas about how to take action. ( http://on.fb.me/gloIQ8 ) but after spending 15 minutes with the list, I'm overwhelmed. I don't know where to start. Let me know if you have any thoughts or suggestions.