Faith’s father helps her pay for college. Now, he has to limit how much he gives her. As a senior in college, she is also worried about what she faces in the job market.

Liz is also concerned about finding a job when she graduates this May. Currently, she is watching every dollar she spends, and expects the financial problems abroad to affect her in some way.

 Andrew is worried he wont be able to pay for school. Federal cut backs on education could compromise his minority-based scholarship and make the Safford loans that offset his scholarship harder to get.

“Will interest rates increase, or will restrictions, regulations, and loss of confidence make it harder for students to get much needed money for college,” Andrew said about the funding that takes pressure off his six-person household.

Faith, Liz and Andrew are classmates of mine at the University of Arizona. On Wednesday, we were asked to investigate anything we did not understand about crisis or bailout. Some people chose to study alternative ways to finance the bailout. Others wanted to know why nothing was done until the situation hit rock bottom. A few just wanted to find out what is in store in the future.

One woman wanted to know what she could do to help. She found that outside of paying their share of the $700 billion, which is more than $2,000 per person, individuals couldn’t really do anything to help.

Faith argued that regular citizens are powerless, because they do not set the agenda or decide what happens. She hopes the “power elite” will look at the past to make fundamental changes for the future.

“Our nation has
 repeatedly gone through periods of contractions and expansions since the 
Depression,’ Faith said.  “Instead of allowing it to get to the point of crisis, we should
 address the underlying issues as to WHY there is a crisis.”

Liz admits that financial institutions played fast and lose with loans, but with the expectation of making a lot of money. She sees an imbalance in what people risked to turn a profit, and blames bankers, investors, and the people who got loans they couldn’t afford for the problem.

“Perhaps everyone involved needed to hit rock bottom before we all learned the hard lesson of giving and taking too much,” Liz said. “Just as in personal lives sometimes you have to really suffer to realize the consequences of extremism. Not only does that individual learn from mistakes but everyone around them does too.”

She hopes that lesson does not stop with the bailout, which she thinks is a short-term fix that will give banks the idea they continue bad behavior.

“I think the bailout will perpetuate the idea that when banks fail because of their own risky decisions they will simply be bailed out,” Liz said.  “Perpetuating this cycle of giving loans to people who default, creating toxic assets and freezing up the credit market.”

Both Liz and Faith are concerned about the crisis, but it is not the deciding factor in who they’re picking for president. Both plan to vote for Obama, but knew that before the bailout.  On the other hand, Andrew thinks the economy is the most important issue facing voters, and wants to hear more comprehensive conversations about the crisis.

“This isn’t to say that the war in Iraq isn’t important, or how the U.S. will deal with healthcare issues, but that will/would all collapse if America’s economic system isn’t stable or even existent.”

Andrew did not say whose economic plan he favors, or whom he plans to vote for this November.