The Big Question on Bailouts: Why?

Why?

The government is only now starting to realize that the AIG bailout was a stupid idea, poorly executed, to the detriment of the taxpayer.

This, of course, was obvious last year to anybody who wasn't bought and paid for by special interests.

AIG should be out of business right now.

They're not.

They're rich.

You're not.

These banks? The ones complaining that they have compensation limits? The limit should be zero. Nobody in those companies should make anything because they should all be unemployed.

The banks that paid back the TARP money and are now back to giving multimillion dollar bonuses every year? They should be bankrupt, too. The AIG bailout was for their benefit.

So, I'm left to wonder, "Why?"

Why do I do it? Why do I have the sleepless nights owning my own business? Why do I stress on months when I lose money? Why do I take cash advances out on credit cards to keep this thing afloat?

It's not like rescuing the banks helped me. In fact, I'm worse off now than ever as far as the help I get from banks.

Small business lending is a joke. It's nearly non-existent and the terms are absurd. Yeah, you can sometimes get an SBA loan if you're willing to put up all your assets and the equity in your home. Seriously, giving somebody a loan at double digit interest and demanding that it be securitized at 300% of the value of the loan isn't exactly doing anybody a favor.

Our home equity loans have all dried up. That's how most business owners I know financed their businesses. No bailout for HELOCS for entrepreneurs, though.

So, why? I mean, yeah, I know the macro-level "why?". The macro-level "why?" is that Wall Streeters are rich and connected. Because of that, they own the government, and they tell the government to steal our money and give it to Wall Street.

No matter how much pain is endured on main street, Wall Street will use the government to step on our heads to make sure their party doesn't ever end.

But why? Why?

Why could nobody see that just giving money to the country's worst businessmen was a stupid idea?

Why could nobody see that it was morally wrong to give wealthy people the taxpayer dollars paid in by millions upon millions of middle class people struggling to get by?

In a country that decries partisan rancour, the only thing that both democrats and republicans could agree on was the fact that the little guy should get totally annihilated in order to benefit rich folks on Wall Street.

So, why?

I joined the military a few years ago as a reservist. I felt it was my obligation to a country that has blessed me so greatly. Now, I honestly wonder, why did I do that?

Why am I going to risk losing my life? Why would I subject myself to absence from my family?

To represent a corrupt government whose only purpose appears to be to victimize the citizenry for the benefit of the wealthy?

Why? Why pay taxes just to see the money go to Wall Street? Why support a system that has already bankrupted my son's and countless future generations in order to give millions and billions to people who were already multi-millionaires?

Why did I spend my life thinking that my government was basically good when in reality, it's just a corrupt means by which the struggling middle class is taxed to death for the benefit of the lazy and the greedy?

It is a testament to the civility of our population that we aren't taking to the streets with pitchforks right now.  In any other age, these Wall Street bankers would be hunted down and beaten to death by angry mobs.

Sometimes, the modern, civilized ways aren't the best ways.

Ultimately, I'm left to wonder, why doesn't anybody, anywhere in government, care about anyone other than Wall Street bankers?

It is said that the East Germans, after the fall of communism, would say:

"Everything we were told about Communism was a lie.  Everything we were told about Capitalism was true."

Recent times have borne this out.

However, this past episode was not a product of capitalism.  In capitalism, those banks would have failed.  Those Wall Streeters would have sufferred the financial consequences of their decisions.

If we were going to engage in socialism, why did we only do it for Wall Street bankers?  For god's sake, we've got the worst of both worlds. 

Where the working person suffers all the financial problems inherent in capitalism, but politically connected people are allowed to do anything and never have to suffer the consequences of their actions because the government will victimize the population in any way necessary to support the system.

Why?