I don't want it. Do you?

posted by The Vidiot @ 10:50 AM Permalink

So, now, I guess since I'm a taxpayer, I'm part owner of AIG.

Invoking extraordinary powers granted after the 1929 stock market crash, the government seized control of the insurance giant American International Group to preserve a crucial bulwark of the global financial system.

Wow. Who woulda' thunk I would've grown up to be part owner of one of the largest corporations on the planet?! Momma's gotta' be proud.

Seriously though, I don't want it. It's like loaning money to your drug-addict cousin. Sure, he says he's good for it, but is he? Really? Probably not. More than likely, he'll smoke/shoot up/snort the loan and not pay back a dime. You'll be out the money, he'll be high as a kite, and none of it is good.

Too big to fail? Whose fault is that anyway? The managers of AIG? The Fed government for not putting the kibosh on the derivatives market? The various and sundry greedy bastards who played this ponzi scheme to begin with? Why aren't they going to pay for it? Why do I have to pay for it? Why do my (mythical) children have to pay for it? I didn't tell them to play the derivative market. I didn't tell them to loan $500,000 to that idiot over there who's annual salary barely capped out at $60,000.

No. I was responsible. I didn't buy when the guy said "Oh sure, I can get you a loan for anything you want. NO problemo." (And he did say just exactly that.) I didn't restructure my debt and sell it off in financial packages to pay it off.

No.

Yet.

I (and you) get stuck with the bill? AND without our consent.

Is anybody getting it yet? That the government doesn't respect, respond or represent the people any longer? Does this ring any bells?

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Hrmph.

Labels: AIG, Economy, government