Because I just...don't...get it.
So we've spent/will spend about $8.5 trillion on all of the bailouts combined. That works out to just under $40,000 for every adult over 19 in America.
I was watching Countdown last night, and I heard Tim Geithner, and then Mr. Obama say, "We need to do this toxic asset plan, in order to free up the credit markets and get credit flowing to working families and small businesses again."
Okay, I guess I can go along with that...except for one small part.
"Get credit flowing..." -- to...whom? And for what?
Free up the credit markets for families, so they can...what? Go buy more cheap Chinese-made crap they don't need? Get that second flat screen TV for the basement? Pay for little Susie's dance lessons? What? What?
I don't know about the rest of you, but I have never, in my entire life, felt less of a need to buy more crap I don't need, than I do right now. And if credit flowed to me, what am I, and millions upon millions of other Americans supposed to do with it?
Buy a new car, so that we can ruin our credit when we finally lose our jobs? Build that addition on to the house? Finally remodel the attic? None of this stuff seems nearly as important to me, as it once did.
Small businesses I can understand a bit more, but barely. Small businesses need credit to keep their doors open, keep goods flowing, keep employees paid. I can go along with that, no problem.
But who are the small businesses going to build products or perform services for? Mr. and Mrs. "Broke" Jones? Or does our government expect Americans to use the newly freed credit to get deeper into debt by purchasing from the small business who got their credit flowing again, too?
DOESN'T THIS SIMPLY REPEAT THE SAME PATTERN?
But wait, there's more.
I am expected to believe now, that giving bailout funds to companies like AIG, Citigroup, and so on, is going to help me in some way? That the $40,000 I now owe, and you now owe, and your wife and husband and brother and sister and mom and dad now owe for these bailouts, is going to be effective in getting the old system back on track?
I am outraged beyond belief.
And here is the real kick in the shins: I must believe now, based on all that we have heard, that giving $8.5 trillion to these big companies is a better investment in America than giving it to you and me. In other words, we are all expected to believe that these greedy fuck thieves are going to do better with this money - in the future - than they have in the past.
Right.
Sorry, I can't buy it. Maybe I'm stupid, but it seems to me that if every family in America were given their portion of the bailout funds, there would no longer be toxic assets, bad mortgages, and so on, out there, in the numbers that exist now as a threat to our entire economy. Sure, some people would act irresponsibly with the money, spend it all on hookers and weed and toys and games and fun. But the far vaster majority of Americans would look at the money as a means to dig themselves out of debt, and, I believe, would spend the money accordingly.
I also do not understand how it can be that going 50/50 on this - half the bailout funds to the companies, the other half to hurting Americans - would somehow be WORSE than what we've bought ourselves now?
HOW?
How could it POSSIBLY be worse than spending $8.5 trillion to revive a ROTTING CORPSE??
UPDATE: An email I just received said, "I don't see the trickle down from the credit markets heading in my direction." I think that makes the point pretty well. Isn't the bailout just another exercise in the failed practice of "trickle down" economics?
Isn't the expectation that by giving these huge bailouts to big companies, the effects of the rescue will "trickle down" to the rest of us?
UPDATE 2:This was just sent to me:
If I were given my portion of the bailout funds, I could pay off my car loan, student loan, credit card, and do some much needed repairs on my house. The banks would get a big chunk of it when I paid off my loans and the balance would create work for local contractors/suppliers with my home repairs. Multiply that by how many millions of people who'd do the same thing as soon as they had that cash. The banks get their money, except it trickles up, and I don't have to worry about my house collapsing on top of me! Everybody wins...so why can't it be done?
Thank you. What toxic assets would remain that could still threaten our entire economy, if Americans were entrusted with the bailout? Banks would have cash to lend to businesses again. Incomes would be freed up for normal living expenses and SAVINGS (a quaint notion these days), and the only losers would be the idiots who invested in credit default swaps (and similar nefarious instruments), since the credit would not default! They'd lose their wager money, the banks and insurance companies would keep their money instead of paying it out to the banks for the dead mortgages...seems a much better "circle of life" than the one we have now...
Those of you who think I am stupid, and who are arguing for the current plan, please explain to me why what I said, and what the person I quoted said, is wrong.