Tongue in cheek. Seriously, though. This article from today's Times puts the cost of this bailout at $500,000,000,000 to $1,000,000,000,000. That's BILLIONS to A TRILLION dollars. Funded by the taxpayers, or our children, or their children.
And all of it because too many people wanted to make a damn easy buck without assuming risk.
I'm a parent. How do you teach a child about risk? You let them fall occasionally. How do you prevent them from really hurting themselves? You watch them and keep them safe. Please let us have a government that understands how to parent the many children who work in financial services.
1 trillion dollars in "welfare" to our nation's financial institutions? And yet we say we can't house, feed, clothe, and educate all Americans. Too costly. Uh-huh.
The financial drama. I am so torn. I am for the government helping its citizens, not bailing out greedy financial institutions. However, letting these institutions fail would plunge citizens into financial hell. Here is a quote from the treasury secretary-Henry Paulson> "I am convinced that this bold approach will cost American families far less than the alternative — a continuing series of financial institution failures and frozen credit markets unable to fund economic expansion.The financial security of all Americans ... depends on our ability to restore our financial institutions to a sound footing," Paulson said.
ReplyDeleteThat is the problem with a democratic republic, u really just have to sit and watch what the people you elected do with your money.The American people(educated or not) have no choice but to watch and wait and hope for the best. You made some good points, however I have to agree with Paulson here, I think that the bailout was needed. Thousands of people have already lost their homes, we don't also need them now losing their jobs as well. The Gov of NY was on television yesterday talking about how many jobs would have been lost just in manhattan had Lehman and AIG gone completely under...THOUSANDS! Those employees do not deserve to be punished because the heads of the companies were greedy. Fine and/or imprison the heads for playing fast and loose with the public money, But don't punish the drones by letting the company fail. Now, having said that let me completely contradict myself. I don't think the government should step in everytime a company is about to fail. You make poor choices, your company deserves what it gets. Only in extreme cases like this, where the WORLD economy will be affected by the failure should the govt step in. I don't know the answer, it is a scary time, and maybe it is just the pendulum swinging the other way. All empires fall, America has had a pretty good run. Now it is Japans turn perhaps to rule the world. Their economy I hear is booming like we were in the eighties right? Maybe it is their turn.