I know that I am not the smartest man in the world, so I need a little help to understand this bailout.
How can our House, Senate and President take the advice of a Secretary Of Treasury, who has been a CEO not just once but twice?
How can they take the money Americans give to our Government to run our country then give $700 billion dollars to Wall Street, who will loan tax dollars back to us for Homes and cars, then charge us interest on our own money?
It is also said that the $700 billion dollars will be borrowed from other countries and our kids at some point will have to pay it back. Now what sense does that make, what say you?
Since I wrote this post I read Thomaslb post called Math. Thomaslb explains it like this: "A $700 billion dollar bailout divided by a population of 301,139,947 comes to $2,324.50 per person.
Of course, not every person works. In 2007, roughly 138 million Americans made enough money to pay taxes. $700 billion divided by 138 million comes to $5,072.46 per wage earner.
The government recently handed out $600 checks to every taxpayer in order to stimulate the economy. Logically, what will sending out bills for more than eight times that amount do?"
How can our House, Senate and President take the advice of a Secretary Of Treasury, who has been a CEO not just once but twice?
How can they take the money Americans give to our Government to run our country then give $700 billion dollars to Wall Street, who will loan tax dollars back to us for Homes and cars, then charge us interest on our own money?
It is also said that the $700 billion dollars will be borrowed from other countries and our kids at some point will have to pay it back. Now what sense does that make, what say you?
Since I wrote this post I read Thomaslb post called Math. Thomaslb explains it like this: "A $700 billion dollar bailout divided by a population of 301,139,947 comes to $2,324.50 per person.
Of course, not every person works. In 2007, roughly 138 million Americans made enough money to pay taxes. $700 billion divided by 138 million comes to $5,072.46 per wage earner.
The government recently handed out $600 checks to every taxpayer in order to stimulate the economy. Logically, what will sending out bills for more than eight times that amount do?"
12 comments:
I did the math a while back (link), and the bailout comes to about $5,072 dollars per taxpayer, plus interest.
Unless you own a lot of financial stocks, you aren't going to break even on this deal.
Hi Thomaslb, I hope you don't mind but I'm putting your post with this question that I ask this bailout and I look forward for a visit from you at Let's Talk God, it's still around.
Over the past few decades the American public has been brainwashed. If a poor person goes on welfare or food stamps, this is socialism; a handout; a free lunch. This person is a parasite.
But a huge corporation can get front money from taxpayers to finance a business venture; and if this venture fails, the same taxpayers will bail this company out. And millions of sleepy people either don't notice, or don't give it any thought. Or they just think that as long as it's a large company that's getting the handouts, it's OK.
Great points Tom, I just don't understand why we, the people allow this in our country.
Did anyone see 60 Minutes last night (Sunday night?) They said the root cause wasn't so much the stupid lending practices in the homeowner market, but the stupid "swaps" that were made where investors, for a fee, bought a "swap" that supposedly protected them from a bad investment. The "swap" documents' language carefully avoided the word "insurance" - that way, they avoided regulation. Investors who bought swaps were not protected because there was no capital to back them up. And these were people who were multi-millionaires who knew better, but greed and promise of huge returns enticed them to keep going.
Know this for sure; the bailout is a waste of a huge amount of money. So far, no Government anywhere in the world has done anything to address the CAUSES of the financial crisis, so there will be no resolution of the crisis.
The numbers people are coming up with for how much we're on the hook are only the beginning. And at the end of the day, it STILL won't make any difference.
Hi Candace, I didn't see 60 Minutes but I was able to catch what you are speaking of at Crooks and Liars, who has the video portion.
I agree JollyRoger, and just take a look at who Paulson put in charge of that $700 billion dollars. Neel Kashkari the assitant secretary for international affairs and former CEO himself. The blind leading the blind.
"The government recently handed out $600 checks to every taxpayer in order to stimulate the economy. Logically, what will sending out bills for more than eight times that amount do?"
I don't know, but if McCain gets elected, we will probably get more of these checks, and a McCain administration wouldn't bill us for any of the bailout, they would just let it go. He would increase military spending and keep the wars going and he would cut taxes more at the same time. I am becoming convinced that a McCain administration would only lead to complete economic ruin.
Bush looks at the economic crisis the same way he looks at the "war on terror"... by throwing money at it, the problem will be solved. How can real conservatives tolerate George W. Bush, and by extension, how do they think they would be able to tolerate McCain?
The Bush approaches to matters typify the Republican approach. Never mind trying to find out what caused the problem and working on that root cause. While many problems go down to the roots, the Republicans always seem to just want to clip away at the branches. After all, the branches are the part people can see. It's a dumbass approach, which is why it appeals to so many dumbasses.
Sorry I'm being such a curmudgeon, but this stuff just gets me grumpy! Heh...
Great points and comment Snave. I know base on the way I am feeling right now with property at stake here. I'm more than just grumpy.
This is in line with some of my thoughts on the bailout. I especially like the part where they tell us that these companies will have to pay the money back, if they are unable to recover with the help of the bailout. How does that make sense? If they don't have the money now (and are in need of the bailout) how will they have the money in the future if it doesn't work? The government, if they were going to give the money away anyway, should have just given it straight to the people. Maybe not the best way to fix the situation, but at least it would help decrease individual debt, and by extension, give the money to the financial institutions, thereby decreasing their debt. I guess there just wasn't enough profit in that.
It's just all confusing for me to understand. Isn't this bailout nothing more than corporate welfare?
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