It's really beginning to grind my gears.

posted by The Vidiot @ 8:13 AM Permalink

Let's just say you're a risk taker. A devil-may-care kinda' person who throws caution to the wind. That you believe you have to take risks to get big rewards.

So fine, you take out a loan at 4% and you invest that money in something that returns 5%. This works great and you're ahead a few bucks. So, wow. This money making thing is easy. You start to do it again, only with riskier investments with higher returns. Some of it works, and some of it doesn't, but you still end up ahead. Ok. So you play this game and you start to come up with a lot of clever ways to play it, each more risky than the last.

Now, keep in mind, this is your money, your time, and your ideas. It's all you, baby.

At some point, your game gets really big and involves a lot of money and some of your positions are getting downright precarious. You see where its going so you ask somebody in authority, "Hey, just let me bend the rules a little bit here and I SWEAR it will be fine. See? I've been pretty great thus far. I obviously know what I'm doing." And that person in authority says, "Sure, man. I trust you."

Keeping in mind that this is just you, one person, doing all of this.

You can see where I'm going. OF COURSE that person has gone too far. OF COURSE that last little bending of the rules caused him to bet it all and lose it. It's a story that is told over and over again throughout time. If it were drugs, that person would be dead and that would be the end of it. But it's not drugs. It's capital. And that is a terminal illness that is endlessly treatable.

So, what should happen? Should we, who didn't play with our money, who didn't try to get something for nothing, SHOULD WE be FORCED to give him more money so he can get back to his tried-and-true tricks while we are scratching to survive with less money than we had before?

Of course the answer is no. Any sane person would say, "Hell no! Let him wallow in his own filth."

But this is where we are today: The government has indicated that they will buy up all the bad debt these venerable institutions have incurred -- meaning we the people will buy up all that bad debt -- and with the money that the government has borrowed from the Fed to buy that bad debt, well, the venerable institutions will go on their merry way, playing their three-card monte or ponzi schemes or whatever it is they do, as if nothing happened. No real punishment for their bad behavior or judgment will be meted out. Yet we, the people, will be paying for it with higher taxes, a more worthless dollar, crumbling infrastructure and even bigger tears in the social safety net.

• That infinitesimal chance at universal health care? Gone.
• Schools, bridges, tunnels, roads? Never getting repaired.
• Food insecurity? Epidemic.
• Homelessness? Rampant and growing.
• Prison population? You ain't seen nothing yet.
• FEMA camps? Ready and waiting for those of us deemed to angry to be running lose in society.

I didn't sign on for any of this. I didn't say to those elected idiots, "Hey! Tax me! Wage war upon me and the world! Spread Western hegemony, by force, throughout the world, no matter how much it bankrupts us! Please, for the love of God, ENSLAVE ME!"

Did you?

Labels: corporate greed, Economy