(From Indexed.)
I know that President-Elect Obama has promised us opportunity in the upheaval, and I know change takes time, especially since he hasn’t even been sworn in yet. But I had hoped that just with his election, things would have already started to change.
Because recently, it seems like opportunity kicks in your door and steals the coins out of your piggy bank. Just look at the news in the past couple of days alone… AIG got called out by Congress for blowing their bailout money on employee bonuses, so they named them “retention benefits” instead. Chrysler is about to get a huge bailout from Congress even though its parent company is rolling in capital.
Can someone explain to me what makes these companies “too big to fail”? Seems to me like the only reason they got so big was that their greed and arrogance turned them away from innovation and service. Why should taxpayers reward these companies for their reprehensible behavior with trillions of dollars while the hard-working lower/middle class is being driven out of their homes?
Who lobbies for the every day man? What if, instead of handing over these huge lumps to money to these huge corporations to do with as they wish, the government used it for something that would help the citizens more directly? The government could use the money to renegotiate mortgages in bulk with lenders. Granted, the government can not, and should not, just fully pay off every home loan in the country. (In Sacramento County alone, there’s over 20,000 foreclosed homes right now, and the median price of a home is just under $200,000. Both of those figures are higher than the national average, but you get the idea…) Even if they only helped partially cover the difference in negative equity for owner-occupied homes about to be foreclosed, it would go a long way in repairing our economy. When home owners who can afford to make payments again on their homes instead of being foreclosed on, it helps them, their communities, and their lenders.
Of course, I’m always in favor of the grassroots, “buy local” efforts. They are simple, and they WORK. But perhaps someone just needs to explain to me how trickle-down really works. Because I don’t see AIG, with or without their employees with million dollar “retention benefits,” looking out for me or my neighbors any time soon.
UPDATE 12÷13÷08: A Nobel-winning economist agrees with me!