Taxpayers comment on bailout
Posted on September 22nd, 2008 by bile Tags: Alaska, America, Anchorage, bailout, Brooklyn, California, Charlestown, Chicago, Coarsegold, Denver, El Paso, Federal Reserve System, Indiana, inflation, Jordan, Madison, Main Street, malinvestment, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Portsmouth, price inflation, Springfield, St. Louis, Texas, Troy, Virginia, Wall Street- “NO NO NO. Not just no, but HELL NO,” writes Richard, a reader from Anchorage, Alaska.
- “This is robbery pure and simple,” Anna from Denver posted on CNNMoney.com’s TalkBack blog this weekend.
- “I’m tired of rewarding institutions and people for the bad decisions they have made,” said Dean from Madison, Wis. “Sure, it will hurt tax payers if/when some of these institutions fail, but perhaps we need to let that happen. We do not need more big government involved in our lives. Enough is enough.”
- “Companies, like individuals, should be held responsible for their decisions,” wrote Jorge from El Paso, Texas. “This buyout does not address the other problems in the pipeline such as personal credit default and market slowdowns in most industries. No new jobs will be created.”
- “It is time for the financial institutions of this country to be called to the mat. We should be expecting and demanding responsible and ethical business practice, not rewarding it at the expense of taxpayers.” Paul from Portsmouth, N.H.
- “The government does not have $700 billion dollars. WE have $700 billion, and it is being taken from us. If this is passed then the next administration and the next will be extracting this one from the people who are supposedly being protected by this bailout.” John from Springfield, Va.
- “Why not take the billions and … make funds available to home owners stuck in the loans these idiots created, marketed and sold,” asked Don from Coarsegold, Calif. “It will put the money where it should be with the little guy who made a mistake, instead of the big guy who created the problem.”
- “Once I invested in something and lost money. Maybe I could just change the rules of investing so that my loss turns into a gain? Oh, I forgot only banks can do that!” Jordan from Charlestown, Ind.
- “I will be watching to see which of our representatives vote for this bailout,” said R. Kidd in Troy, N.C. “Let the American people see how many we can fire come election time.”
- “Call your Congressman. Stop blogging, posting comments, and call your congressman. This is the patriotic thing to do. Let them hear your opinion, show them this is still America and that you will not stand for this!!” Danny from Texas
Not everyone is upset about this though:
- “I was opposed to the bailout at first, but realized that the scope of this thing is global and so massive that the entire global economy could collapse if nothing was done. …The priority has to be resolving the present crisis of confidence in our economy. Remember, if Wall Street collapses, Main Street will go with it.” Bill from St. Louis
- “This money is not a handout to companies. It’s simply giving banks and mortgage companies loans, since the banking system itself is too unstable to raise this kind of capital. And no, the government cannot just use the $700 billion to pay back all the citizens that will be hurt by this. If the companies like AIG fail, the cost will be far far greater than $700 billion. Wake up!!” Andy from Chicago
- “It’s NOT a bailout. The government is not handing out cash, they actually stand to make a great deal of money out of this, which will trickle down to YOU. First priority should be to try to control and fix the problem, then regulate sufficiently to make sure this NEVER happens again.” Surfta from Brooklyn, N.Y
From Answers.com:
bailout: n. A rescue from financial difficulties: corporate bailouts.
Any profit the government would make on this is going to be completely negated by price inflation and interest on the debt accumulated. There is no money to perform this bailout. The money will be borrowed or printed. If the market was allowed to unwind this those issues would not occur and recovery would be far faster. Malinvestment needs to be liquidated and prices recalculated… not arbitrarily inflated.
2 Responses to “Taxpayers comment on bailout”
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September 22nd, 2008 at 8:30 am
Would be nice to see this sort of ire at things like Sarbanes Oxley, capping CEO salaries at $400,000 , creating money out of thin air. So far I see legislation to help out the people at the top and then wealth redistribution going towards the ones less fortunate. Is it all a wash in the end? It seems like the economy is fundamentally flawed in that wealth generation isn’t tied to productivity. When the government creates an environment that incentivizes people to take action that’s “catastrophic” to the economy as a whole, they step up the regulations to wrangle the beast they created. So it looks like a complete failure or we move towards something like what China has.
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:24 am
Obama — “Even if the U.S. Treasury recovers some or most of its investment over time, this initial outlay of up to $700 billion is sobering. In return for their support, the American people must be assured that the deal reflects the basic principles of transparency, fairness, and reform.”
If I were running the debate on Friday, one of my questions would be, “So, Barack, in the interest of transparency, fairness, and reform, do you pledge that all economic data reported during your administration will be unbiased? That would mean publishing accurate inflation numbers, unemployment numbers, taxes, etc. If find that you are incapable of even this smallest amount of honesty, would you consider turning over the raw data for independent business(es) to digest?” It’s small potatoes at this point, but it’s a pet peeve of mine.