It's interesting to me that people who are in agreement with George Bush and Henry Paulson on both their assessment of the problem and the necessary solution are accepted as being serious and thoughtful, while those of us who don't want to bail out the rich assholes of the financial sector are considered wacky and crazy because some House Republicans - for different reasons entirely - opposed the Wall Street Welfare Plan.
People, $700 billion is on the table. If we're worried about people making their mortgages, use $700 billion to help them. If we're worried about people being able to afford gas and groceries, use the $700 billion to help them.
Do any of you have any idea what poor Americans go through in order to receive their states' and the US government's measly help? Do any of you know how many people stay in jobs they hate and that pay poorly because to get a better job means their children don't qualify for insurance anymore - and the better jobs they can get also don't provide it and don't pay enough for them to purchase individual insurance?
I know a family where the husband works two jobs - sometimes three - whose hunting is an essential part of the family's protein intake for the year and who got into bowhunting because you can't reuse bullets, who scrimp and save and do without and who still require WIC for their children. And then I read about obscenely rich CEOs who have been stealing money from us for years - no one seems to dispute or care about this - who complain about being restricted to $500,000/yr and no golden parachutes like the $16 million the CEO of WaMu got after 3 weeks of "work." They have the utter gall to suggest that American taxpayers have no right to tell them how to spend the money we're giving them, no right to restrict their ability, once we fill it up with our money, to suck the system dry again.
This bailout is nothing more than tricke-down economic bullshit all over again. Let's give all our money to rich people in the hopes that they will see fit to toss some crumbs our way. Let's continue to think that our economy needs to be based upon credit instead of making things. Let's not only allow criminals and thieves to walk free, let's reward them for being successful criminals and thieves.
I suppose, though, that if mortgages are really the path to eternal economic prosperity, then mortgaging our future and that of our children and grandchildren to the tune of 700 billion wasted dollars is definitely the way to go. But you might want to step away from the Bush Doomsday Scenarios (remote-controlled planes filled with WMDs! Mobile weapons labs! Aluminum tubes!) for one minute to consider that there might be better ways to spend our money. And better people on which we can spend it.
Update: it cannot be emphasized enough that credit doesn't create long-term jobs, except those needed to manage the credit. Unfortunately, we can't sustain an economy where every single person is employed managing the debts of every other person. Economies run on buying and selling, not loaning and borrowing - the latter are necessary, to be sure, but proponents of the bailout are treating them as the foundation, not merely one pillar. Unlimited personal, corporate and governmental debt is unsustainable. People need to be able to pay off their mortgages and credit cards, not get new ones.
