Let's FIX the Economy Instead

“Practices of the unscrupulous money changers stand indicted in the court of public opinion.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt

The more I find out about this (now up to $1,800,000,000,000) “bailout/rescue.” the more I realize what scam it is. There are far better ways to keep our economy afloat. In fact, we could even fix some things – like for instance; our tangible infrastructure.

In a way, America has been here before – during the Great Depression. Herbert Hoover's bailouts for the money speculators didn't work back then either. What succeeded were real, tangible economic development (work) programs.

Our nation is in serious trouble. Our system is broken.

The trouble at Wall Street is not an accident, it is a sign.

And the “bailout” is just a band aid on a cancer.

Everybody knows this. And yet, we're being asked to continue to live in our fantasy world, and believe that if we throw money at the problem; somehow, it will fix itself. Obviously, it won't. But not so obviously, this is still only the tip of the iceberg.

We have allowed our electoral system to be corrupted. Consequently, we have allowed our elected officials to be corrupted. Ironically, within America's electoral system; an honest, moral, and reasonable candidate barely has a chance at getting elected. It was just a matter of time before the ship started sinking.

Examples:

• Alternative energy is being ignored again. The “bailout” procedures have pushed the extension of the alternative energy tax breaks to the back burner... again. This might not be so bad if the fossil fuel industry hadn't received $18,000,000,000 in subsidies. (update; the tax credit has been added to the Senate “bailout” bill)

• America's governmental scientists have been chosen on the basis of politics, not science. This has led to numerous mistakes in understanding of reality. The worst case of political ignorance of science is Bush's attitude about global warming. The consequences are terrifying.

• The Department of Interior (DOI) is in the middle of a number of scandals – the most recent being the conflict of interest case with oil companies. Drugs and sex were involved, so this case has received some public interest. But it is only part of a much bigger case that has cost America billions in oil tax revenues. (To see a previous post concerning DOI corruption click here.) If ever there were a Federal bureaucracy not worthy of our confidence, it would be the DOI. Nonetheless, they are trying to gut the Endangered Species Act by giving themselves even more power.

• The American auto industry has ignored the obvious for decades now, and not bothered to develop gas saving and alternative powered cars. For their callous disregard for the reality of the petroleum supply, they want to be bailed out to the tune of $25,000,000,000.

• This “bailout/rescue” itself may have been contrived. Officials have been secretly planning this “bailout” for months. (They claim as a contingency plan.) The Bush administration has been tightening money, which further exacerbates the crisis. And the Secretary of the Treasury, Hank Paulson, has made three critical “mistakes” that have made this crisis worse. The Times reports: “Had it not been for Mr Paulson the bailout would probably never have been needed. What made it necessary was a three-stage sequence of blunders. The first began when Mr Paulson decided, for largely political reasons, to wipe out the private shareholders in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two businesses which he and many Republican politicians regarded as crypto-socialist incubi in the American body politic. The enormous – and unnecessary – losses suffered by shareholders of Fannie Mae triggered the first stage of the financial crisis, starting on September 8. He then aggravated the crisis by deliberately bankrupting Lehman and then seizing the assets of AIG.” ... Now Mr. Paulson wants us to give him $700,000,000,000 to spend as he pleases. I'll have to admit, this crisis sounds contrived.

Why is it that every American isn't up in arms about this? Yes, most of us are. However, some people don't think America's collapse matters. There are multi-national corporations (some of them banks) that would survive the collapse of America's economy. In fact, if stocks collapse, there will be an opportunity for those who still have money to buy stocks up for a pittance. Who knows, they might even use the “bailout” money to do it.

So, just how bad are things. Well, Wall Street “needs” something like $1,200,000,000,000 to keep our system working like it has been. The unasked question should be; “why do we want the system to keep running like it has been?” Of course, there are no guarantees that the “bailout” will work. In fact, it won't avert a recession... its too late. As we can obviously see; if we keep giving out money, without any punitive measures, there will be more takers... and more, and more, and more.

Hey, I only need 10 million dollars to pay my bills and go to Vegas. If you don't give me the money, Las Vegas' economy will suffer greatly. If that happens, the State of Nevada could be in serious trouble. (Isn't that pretty much their argument?)

I have three concerns. First, what if the bailout isn't the best way of handling this “crisis?” Then we're in trouble. Second, what if the bailout doesn't work? Then we're really in trouble. Third, what if this is all a scam? Then we're really, really in trouble.

Even the House of Representatives saw through this BS. Not only the Democrats, but a whole lot of Republicans think the “bailout/rescue” is a bad idea. I highly recommend you listen to what Rep. Dennis Kucinich has to say. He suspects a scam also.

The heads of these corporations have caused this crisis! They should all be sued, not reimbursed. At the very least, any corporation that receives “bailout” money should be required to fire everyone at top level management – the CEO, the CFO, the Board of Directors – all of them! They caused the problems. They should not be allowed to screw up again! It would be a double standard not to fire them. If one of their employees had failed this badly, the employee certainly would have been fired.

Personally, if I were going to bailout somebody; I would bail out the poor. The poor are not going to take that money and invest it somewhere else in the world. On the other hand, these multi-nationals have no problem taking the “bailout” money and investing it somewhere else. And don't be surprised if they do just that. They will follow the most profitable investments. If that's not in the U.S., oh well... to bad for us.

I would prefer to see the “bailout” work is such a way as to change the face of corporatism. But the sad truth is that multi-national corporations hold far too much power to allow our Government to get away with that.

The American people have sat on our pathetic asses for far too long now. We have allowed our nation to become a puppet to multi-national corporations. And now we're going to have to pay to keep them profitable. Why? So that they won't shut down our system. Why? Because we are too pathetic to think up a better one.

I love this country.

I hate to see this happening to it.

I want to see things fixed.

And it is starting to look like the “bailout/rescue/economic hijacking” is, at best, just throwing good money after bad. At worst, it is the ransoming of America's middle class, and draining of our nation's wealth – to make the "unscrupulous money changers" even richer.