Wow. What you're seeing is your government standing up for you even if it's the wrong thing to do, and then dropping the ball and leaving things in a mess. They've heard the voices of their people and they are responding. And boy oh boy are their people pissed. They are emotional and irrational, and willing to crush the entire system in order to set the system right. And after saying no, they're going on election recess.
People would much rather see their investments tank than bail out billionaires for their bad decision making. Initially people would have not paid any mind to the poor getting thrown out of their homes for taking a sketchy mortgage. Now it's trickled up to the middle class, and the middle class is getting hosed. Mostly people are looking at what they've done, said "I'm doing nothing wrong, why do I have to help people who are failing? Why do I have to take that risk? I didn't risk before, why am I being forced to risk now?"
There is a significant psychological component to this, this is true, and most people get it. But they aren't moving forward until, metaphorically speaking, heads are on pike staffs outside of the Capitol Dome. And if the system falls apart because Congress goes on recess, their heads should be right next to them.
More importantly, the references to Chicken Little or the Boy who cried "wolf" may not be 100% accurate but people are tired of eight years of "if we don't do this we're all dead." I'm fortunate. I don't have a mortgage, have significant cash in savings, and can eliminate my debt in a hurry. I also know that many others, well, are not.
A long shot is that the 371 billionaires in the U.S. could come up as heroes and bail out the government by each making a $20 million donation. But they got rich presumably by taking good risks. This isn't a good risk and everyone knows it.
When people are identified for prosecution, maybe then people will endorse the deal. There's a sense of cruel vindication. You lose, you don't get bailed out- you lose your shorts and go broke. That's the deal that the people want to see.
If the financial system can't take that, then the system is dysfunctional and there will be more pain coming.
2 comments:
I am powerful ignorant, and the majority of your argument went zooming over my head. In a nutshell, what is the bailout?
In a nutshell, this: http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/10/house_approves_bailout_700bill.html
I'm not sure what all was included in prior versions of this, but the bottom line is basically, the federal government is spending billions of dollars to rescue corporate America from its own greed and stupidity. Of course, it's also an election year, and everyone wants to cover their respective anatomy.
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