Sunday, January 29, 2012

Bailout: The Government's Worst Joke Ever


            The times that we are in are hard and not looking too good for the future. As a tax payer as everyone in America is, or at least should be, I take pride and some form of happiness to see my government throw my hard earned money away as they have tried to salvage sinking companies from the briny deep. I am, of course, being very facetious to which the mood of this writing will stay as I have lost and most likely will lose more hope for the economy to bounce back to something of a presentable state that we as a country can be proud of.
            Not too long ago, in a country not too far away, company after company fell to the evil that is bankruptcy. The article, “How the Government Bailout of FailingCompanies Enslaves our Children and Grandchildren,” states that in the massive bankruptcy that happened a couple of years ago to the companies of Ameribank, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, Merryl Lynch and AIG was a colossal tragedy to the economy. These events, however, show the American people that the government has a humorous side as they responded with the worst joke ever told in America. Not only did the government include themselves but they felt like including the American people as well as the government took the peoples’ money and threw it away. It might have been funnier if they just burned all the money and sang kumbaya around the fire. The government took billions of dollars and tried to revive the dead only to increase the enormous amount of debt that America is in, but it is for the greater good so that makes it all ok. It is easy for the government to hand truckloads of other peoples’ money to these companies, it is even easier for the companies to spend it because they know that it is not theirs, so there is no negative side if  they waste it. This leads up to my next point that I am going to make.
            I feel like the people of today have become too soft. If companies like these fail, and fail hard they did, I feel like they should get the “F” they deserve. I believe no one truly learns unless they truly fail. The government playing this joke of giving the bankrupt companies billions of dollars to stay afloat will not teach them anything. For companies to take more responsibility for their actions, though this may be harsh, they need to fail without the hope of someone coming in to save them. Some would state that there are companies that are too big to let them fail, which is stated in the article “When Should the Government Bail Out PrivateCompanies?” If this happens to be the case then that company would need to be broken up or given less power because if this is ever the case then that means a monopoly is forming and if I am not mistaken that is a bad thing to let happen.
            The government bailing out companies is a huge joke, and not even a good one at that. It is like those jokes that you think is really funny on your own, but when you tell your friends they just stare at you with the dumb face. If companies are failing then they need to fail hard and then maybe, just maybe, people will learn the value of money.

3 comments:

  1. I completely agree with you. Our government was not intended to be a bank that private corporations could turn to in time of need. The government has no right to take our taxes and spend it trying to revive dying corporations because some hot shot CEOs made some bad decisions. Those people need to take responsibility for their actions instead of pushing this financial burden on the tax payer’s shoulders. These companies failed due to their own mistakes and poor management of funds so they aren’t the companies worth having around anyways. I have no idea how the government is going to correct this mess they made. All I know is that the private sector needs to remain private.

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  2. I couldn't have said it better myself. The cynicism actually helps make your point because I think that is how the majority of the country feels on the issue of the Wall Street bailout. The companies had been taking too many risks for the sake of profit, whether it was risky investments or trusting too much in the economy not failing. They weren't practicing smart business and so they deserved what they got. They are like a child that needs to learn the error of it's ways. The government needs to let them suffer a little so they learn their lesson.

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  3. I really like the point that you make about the companies getting the 'F' that they deserve. It's high time that the government let these corporations learn from their mistakes in order to prevent them from making the same kinds of mistakes in the future. Also, the point you make about the companies becoming monopolies is another brilliant idea in my opinion. If a company becomes so large that they need billions of dollars to remain afloat, then maybe they need to be broken down and managed in smaller sections. All in all I agree with you on this one, something definitely needs to be done here soon, and the government needs to start learning to say no to handing out taxpayer money.

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