Bailouts

So my friend Trista blogged about the auto company bailouts. This is an issue that Craig and I have been venting about for days now. Cause we do wierd things like that, like we don't have enough in our lives to rant about.

Here's what I think about all thest bailouts. If you frequently get irritated by my take on matters, might want to go play yahoo games or something and come back later.

First with the banks. I heard someone say on CNN during all of that, that if they took that sum of money they gave to the banks and split it between every head of household in the country, each household would receive approximately $400,000. Enough to pay off most mortgages entirely. My first thought was "yeah, THAT wouldn't help the banks" but the more I thought about it the more I wondered....

You see, most people I know don't HAVE $400,000 mortgages. Take my modest home for instance. I owe approximately $60,000. My home is WORTH $169,000 at last appraisal. Right now the only thing keeping me in this town is that my home isn't yet mine. So what would happen if we got $400,000? We would pay off our house of course. We would take the remainder of the money and put a down payment on someone else's house and mortgage the rest, thus putting our business back into the bank. I'm going to assume that a few people would do this, thus sparking a housing boom and subsequent upward turn in the economy. But there are many people who wouldn't choose to move, what about them?

Well those people would likely do one of a couple things. They might spend that $400,000. Wouldn't that boost the economy! Or they might decide to be careful and save it, put it in the bank. The bank then puts it in stock and every stock they invest in BOOSTS THE ECONOMY. And yet other people, who don't even own homes would use that money to buy one! The way I see it we could have taken care of this recession in a hurry!

And now it's the auto companies. Call it a bailout, call it a loan... call it whatever makes your little heart happy. But we have to ask ourselves a couple of questions. First, WHY are auto makers in trouble? The recession you say? Well think about this?

This recession didn't suddenly start yesterday. We've been teetering on that edge of what defines "recession" for a few years. Take yourself back to say... 2005. What kinds of vehicles was GM strongly marketing then? Gas guzzling SUV's of course. Are you telling me that GM had NO IDEA the economy was in a downturn when they were marketing $60,000 gas guzzling SUV's? PFFT. Maybe they should have been marketing smaller, more fuel efficient cars THEN and they wouldn't be where they are now. They economy didn't DO THIS to auto companies. They were part of the entire process.

Another problem I have is where does it end? Banks, Auto companies.... next it will be other fortune 500 companies and eventually it will trickle down to Joe Shmoe who owns the pharmacy. Do you think anyone will be bailing out Joe? I think not. But why? Joe likely is in trouble BECAUSE of the economy and not his own poor choices, but who will be bailing him out? Exactly how much authority should the government have over whose business and livlihood thrives and whose fails?

Because when I'm sitting at work day after day and I see people who appear to have it together tell me they had to drop their insurance because they couldn't afford it anymore, that makes me very sad. When I have people come in unsure if they really WANT the medication they need because of it's cost that makes me angry. When I see people using the Emergency room as their family doctor because of lack of insurance that makes me furious. And those people are in that position because the banks, the auto companies, the fortune 500's MADE BAD CHOICES.

I say let GM and Wells Fargo fall on their ass and make room for some of the smaller institutions to thrive. Let them work out their own mistakes. If every one of those banks and companies cut the salaries of their CEO's in half for 5 years they would likely get back on their feet in no time and that CEO would still be living far more comfortably than most of us.

My brother and I were talking about it the other day releived because of our job security. What do people do when money gets tight? They shop at Walmart instead of Macy's (my brother is the assistant manager of a walmart store. They start using the ER as their family doctor (me), and they get desperate and end up in prison (my sister). Sad isn't it?

Soap box put away for another day.....