Tickets and the Titanic

When the Titanic went down, who got the lifeboats?

Now, those of us in the third class sections of the economy are being asked to help the rich get into the lifeboats, while we go down with the mortgage.

The more I think about it… the same financial institutions that refuse to renegotiate mortgages so people can avoid foreclosure, are now asking us to lend money to them! These same bankers are about to lose their Country Club memberships if the people they forced out of their homes refuse to lend them money.

What’s the alternative? $700 billion to guarantee health care for everyone, saving not only lives but billions of dollars for businesses to reinvest or pay a living wage to American workers… a massive infrastructure program to make public transportation available thereby cutting the use of foreign oil 10%… a Manhattan Project on alternative energy creating jobs and energy independence? I bet that those projects would stimulate the economy.

Naw… let’s give our money to the same guys who mismanaged investments so they can make some more investments.

Economics of Mass Destruction

I guess I feel like most other Americans today angry and suspicious. I have been blessed enough to know that my family will weather this economic storm, but I am worried about my employees and for the most vulnerable in our society. I am worried that people will be so preoccupied with their own bank accounts that we will forget to look after the welfare of people who have less or nothing at all.

One way or another, the guys on Wall St. and on Pennsylvania Ave. will get taken care of – they can just write each other checks from our accounts. We should be angry about what is happening with this economic bail-out. We (apparently) should be worried about our own finances and future as well. However, I think the right kind of anger is not focused on self-interest but on the effect this crisis and bail-out will have on the people who can least afford it.

And the hell of it is that we can’t even be sure there is a real or fabricated crisis! After all, when was the last time that President Bush spoke to the country about a disaster that was at our doorstep unless we acted immediately? Iraq – and that not only turned out to be a fraud but a disaster afterward.

Perhaps I am a bit cynical about the impending economic Armageddon, or rather the proposed solution being discussed in Washington, but doesn’t it seem strange – even a bit suspicious? Here are some questions I would like answered.

• 1. Why should we trust Secretary Paulson to have absolute power to spend $700 billion of our money, when he didn’t even see this disaster coming down the tracks until it was already here?

• 2. Is there anything – anything else in this Country that the Republicans can screw up?

When Bush became President, we had the highest rate of employment in decades and the largest budget SURPLUS. The economy was the best seen since the end of WWII. Now we have a record deficit which will exponentially increase the lowest rate of employment since the 1950’s and an economy that can “meltdown” in days!

We are less safe as a Country compared to eight years ago, less respected abroad and even our traditional allies are much less cooperative. Europe has become the center of science and education, India and China the center of Commerce – even Iraq has a better economy and a budget surplus!

The only recourse we have and the only healthy focus of our anger has to be the ballot box and our willingness to look out for each other.

Anybody?

Is there anybody who doesn’t believe that if Barack Obama was white, he’d be ahead by 40 points?

Is there anybody who doesn’t believe or understand that this $700 billion bail-out is the biggest Republican tax hike in history?