Tuesday, December 9, 2008

$700 Billion Bailout For The People (and comments on NYT today)

Thank you so much to David Sanger, who wrote a very good piece in today's NYT, "Taking Risks With Bailout: Not Nationalization For Autos, but Close".. He echoes my concerns exactly.

What the bailouts are doing, is not necessarily a good thing. And I think it's even WORSE to simply align with certain companies, because that creates a conflict of interest. Not only does it show favoritism or partiality to certain companies, it joins the hands of government and supposedly "free enterprise". Totally taking over a company seems worse, but on the other hand, at least you know who owns what, and who is in control, and there's no confusion or conflicts.

I used to be for all these bailouts, to stabilize things, but I'm not anymore. I am in favor of a massive bailout plan to be evenly distributed to every tax-paying American citizen. That's what I want to see. $700 billion divided by 2 million. Not just $85 billion--$700 billion. Then WE, the people, will DECIDE which cars we buy and which companies survive. We support the economy by being able to keep house and buy houses, and put money into banks.

$700 billion FOR THE PEOPLE.

I also read the article, or editorial by Pakistan's president, which is in today's NYT, and it expresses the point I had--that linking the whole country to terrorism without evidence is wrong and inflammatory. Pakistan's president addresses this matter in a very gracious, eloquent, and peacemaking way. Everyone should read it.

No comments: