Bailout Blues – Bumming Billions

This article was originally published at americanchronicle.com on Sept. 29th, 2008.

I went on a tirade the other day. I told my coworker that just this once I was abandoning my libertarian principles of non initiation of force and doing no harm. There are men in this world, men who have all the money and all the power, who just keep taking and taking from the common folk. They just want more and more. They want it all. Total control. They want everything down to the soul of the lowliest human being in the most destitute situation. And they most likely believe it is their birthright to own and control such things. Most likely they believe they are somehow better than us. Now they have the gall to ask for our help in rescuing them from their own mismanagement and poor decision making, and our great, great, great, great, great, great grandchildren will likely still be paying for it when they are old and gray if we allow this rescue to take place. It was these men I ranted against.

I wanted to see justice done. I wanted to see these men publicly hung in the most painful manner and beaten to death, just to send a message. I wanted to see the men responsible for this banking mess, this "credit crisis," this financial fiasco punished in the most severe way possible. And I wasn´t talking about the CEOs of the firms that are going under. I wasn´t talking about the huge banks that are bleeding green ink due to the so called mortgage crisis. I´m talking about the big boys in charge. I´m talking about the private individuals who own the Federal Reserve system and all the central bankers worldwide. I´m also talking about the politicians who help them swindle the general populace of not only the United States, but of the entire world with their fiat currencies. I´m talking about any politician who would now argue in favor of such a bailout, the continued failed policies of the past and the continued subjugation of the American people. It´s time for these men who pull the strings and manipulate the money supply to answer for their fraud, and it´s time for them to pay, and to pay dearly.

These rich men sitting high atop their perches looking down on us do not deserve their positions of power. They do no real work. The offer no real product or service the market needs. They simply connive and deceive the populations of the world for their own gain. The shell games they play to suck the money from your pocket and mine can no longer hold our attention. They have been robbing the US citizens of our real wealth for nearly a century now. It is time for them to give back the real wealth of our nation and we should happily return their "notes" to them. I think we can find something to replace such paper, something of real value, something like some precious metals or notes backed by precious metals that would represent the real labor of real men rather than the debt of a population.

And even if those men responsible were to suffer such harsh consequences, even if they were rounded up and thrown into a dungeon somewhere, that still would not be enough. Their fortunes were made on the backs of the working class, since the money they loan was created from nothing and backed by nothing of any real value and the interest they kept for their personal coffers was earned by real people providing real labor, goods and services. They should be the ones paying to keep their failed institutions afloat. Their personal wealth should be returned to those institutions they claim we need so badly. Their assets should be forfeit and they should be made to work to earn their keep in this world just like the rest of us poor slobs. Let´s see just how long these trillionaire bankers could last on the street. Let´s see how they´d last as a waiter, a taxi driver, a pizza deliverer, a garbage collector, or some other laborer. Let´s see if they could even learn a trade and become a tradesman. Let´s see how they´d do in business if they had any real competition. I have the feeling it wouldn´t be too well if they handled their personal finances they way they handle the financing of a nation. Perhaps they´d be able to make few dollars begging on the streets and at least give a couple of people the satisfaction of knowing they´ve helped a fellow human being that day.

All this ranting got me to thinking, what would really happen if we just let these institutions fail anyway? Surely these dire warnings these bankers spew forth are just scare tactics. Certainly people aren´t going to stop doing business just because some financial institutions fail. There will still be demand for food, clothes, travel, housing, etc. Any void left in the marketplace would soon be filled, and then we´ll all start moving forward again. Supply and demand simply need to come to a stable balance.

The bank I had my car loan with recently went under. I didn´t get to stop paying my car loan. The car didn´t magically become mine just because the bank no longer existed. Nobody came and took my car saying it was to be liquidated. Another bank bought the loan and started demanding payments from me. The same is true of mortgages. People who have been paying their mortgages for years will not suddenly own their homes outright just because their bank folds. Their loan will be picked up by another institution and they´ll keep paying like they´ve always done. Those who aren´t able to afford their mortgages will still not be able to afford their mortgages with a new institution and those loans will still likely go into default unless some private bank renegotiates the loan terms with them. I should not be forced to subsidize their mistake just because some financial institution is going to fail.

I´ve heard of a couple of interesting things happening during the recent attempts to bailout these financial institutions. The first is a Rasmussen poll that stated only seven percent of Americans polled supported the bailout. Now polls can vary widely and this has much to do with how questions are asked, and some polls contradict the one I just sited, but the people I´ve talked with overwhelmingly object to bailing out the rich bankers. And I do actually talk to real working class people everyday, unlike the elitists in Washington DC who hardly take the time to actually discuss these matters with us "little folk." It wouldn´t surprise me if the seven percent number was correct. The other thing I heard that was interesting was that our congress critters were receiving letters three hundred to one objecting to the proposed bailout. It looks as if the common man perhaps knows something those supposed omnipotent politicians don´t.

One thing I´m certain of is that the politicians couldn´t care less about what you and I think. They don´t care about the common man. They are more concerned with their friends and supporters on Wall Street and in the banks. The people overwhelmingly object to bailouts and the politicians continue to discuss the best way to go about bailing out the banks. During the debates neither Barack Obama nor John McCain spoke about not bailing out the banks. Neither one of those two jamokes mentioned attacking the root cause of the current financial debacle and abolishing the Fed. They couldn´t care less about the Constitution, our freedoms, our businesses or our families, they only care about maintaining control and the status quo for those already in power. These are not the type of men we need in leadership positions. These are not the type of men who represent the common man, the hard working middle class people who are the backbone of this country. Still, it doesn´t matter what we think, there will be a bailout come Hell or high water.

I doubt very much I´m going to get my wish. I doubt very much I´ll see these millionaire congressmen and senators behind bars. I doubt I´ll see those in the Bush administration who engaged in unconstitutional activities sufficiently punished, ever. They´ll all go along on their merry way and live the life of luxury all their crimes netted them while I and my family continue to struggle day by day to make ends meet. They´ll continue to support their billionaire bums who will continue to beg for more money from the common man. They´ll continue to rob me of my rightful income that I earned through my hard work and labor in the form of taxation. They´ll continue to force me through said taxation to pay for services I don´t use, such as bailing out financial institutions that should rightfully fail. They´ll continue to make laws infringing upon my God given rights and continue to grow government rather than reduce its size. I can only hope that the polls I read were correct and the vast majority of people do indeed find these bailouts as objectionable as I find them. I can only hope that in six weeks when it comes time to vote the people remember who it was that argued for these bailouts and who it was that voted for them. Then I hope the people vote those responsible for this mess out of office. Let´s break the back of this duopoly. At least that would be a step in the right direction.