If we actually had to cut a check for our share of this freakin financial bailout how much would yours be? The total cost is estimated to be 700 billion dollars. That's a number that is so big it's hard to wrap your head around. They might as well say it's 700 gazillion, because to the average guy on the street a billion is incomprehensible.
Assuming there are 300 million people in the US then each person would owe $2333. So the share for my family of 5 is over $11k.
700 billion is a staggering number. Where is it going to come from. The US is already 10 trillion in the hole (give or take a trillion). A trillion is another number that is so big mortals cannot begin to understand it. It's like one of those scribbles a theoretical physicist writes on a board to explain why the universe weighs more than it should.
And the biggest question of them all is "how is this bailout going to help me?". Well it's not going to help you or me. Other than hopefully keeping the US out of another great depression the average Joe gets no benefit from this. The banks benefit, Wall street benefits, but the average Joe gets squat....again. This is not going to help the foreclosure crisis. It's likely to make it worse. There is now ZERO incentive for banks to save a loan. Why would they? when they can just unload it on the taxpayers.
I'd like to see a few added provisions to this bailout. I'd like to see some of that 700 billion spent on tracking down every last person that helped create this mess. From hedge fund managers right down to the strawberry picker that lied on their mortgage application. If the government is going to buy all the toxic waste from the banks with our tax dollars then I want the banks to offer low interest loans to home buyers. If our tax dollars are being spent to fix this mess then we should be able to get a low interest loan (as long as we can actually qualify). It seems only fair that we should get some benefit after bailing out the banks.
This whole thing just pisses me off. It's hard to believe that our so called leaders could not see this mess coming. Did they think we could all just keep spending more and more for ever. Did they think that houses doubling in price every 5 years was a good thing. Did any of them stop and ask themselves who would be able to afford to live in the US in 20 years if this kept up.
16 comments:
It's very, very simple. Since Reagan, the country has seen a massive transfer of wealth to the top 1%. You simply go where the money is and tax the bejesus out of them. Oh, Death Taxes on the millionaires and billionaires is just fine with me. Let Buffy and Biff, their heirs, go out and work for a living like the rest of us.
ummmm, Jim did you know that the top 2% of the country's earners already pay 90% of the personal income tax in this country?
also, high current income DOES NOT equal wealth... something one learns when the extra $2,000 bucks a year the boss gave you that pushes you into a higher tax bracket and your net pay actually goes down...
im NOT paying....i refuse
besides i see nothing wrong with the top 1% having 90% of the wealth...darwins theory. the most intelligent SHOULD have the most they deserve it...they have worked hard (most of them)thats what america is all about. its only the poor people that complain about it. Rich people get penalized every step of the way...not just in taxes, but every time they do business they tend to be charged more. because they are intelligent, they know to have less children as the poor tend to have more children per capita...making the "rich' a smaller and smaller percentile of the population,
Poor people arent intelligent enough to invest money properly, so they would ultimately end up in the same place that they started before they had money. this has been proven time and time again. (look at the lottery winners) I APPLAUD the rich getting richer. Anything else would be socialism
I don't think that this bill will keep us from going into a great depression and will actually cause us to go into a deeper one. More government intervention = prolonging the consequences of the original pain.
And the total that you calculated $2.3k is not the total debt from this crazy bill. Paulson wants $700 Billion dollars at any one time, so he could keep on filtering bad debt in and out so long as he keeps the balance at $700 Billion. The actual cost will probably be in the Trillions of dollars.
But I do agree w/ you in that fact that all of the people who caused this mess should be punished, except for the fact that the people who started this (Banks, etc,) are all buddies w/ the Fed.
To golfer_x: Actually the tax burden on taxpayers is higher than you stated. Keep in mind that there are many people who don't pay taxes: minors, the poor, and some of the disabled to name a few. Divide more than $700 billion only by the number of taxpayers and we're paying a lot more. Of course those who pay more taxes in general will pay disproportionately more than that even.
To jennalee: I believe that people deserve to be paid what the market will bear. However, not every rich person is their because of intelligence. There's more to it than that. Also, you don't have to be particularly intelligent to make a lot of money.
Anything else would be socialism
What exactly do you call this bailout? It IS SOCIALISM.
The number is just a "what if" every one, every single person living in the US had to pay their cut. It's just a fantasy.
To Jennalee
A few months ago I would have said that the people on wall street were intelligent enough to make money. Today I would say they are not intelligent,they are greedy and lack integrity. These people hwave ruined a system that has worked well for many years with their greed.
However, it quite possible your theory could be correct because those rich bastards that own these companies have their hand out begging for money like all the poor people they look at with disdain.
People make poor choices because they lack the knowledge needed to make better choices. When intelligent or professional people take advantage of people without the knowlege then this is an inequity of power. This is when the government should step in not to help the intelligent rich person but to help the poor man. Because the rich man undersands all facets of risk,and leverage wheras the poor man lacks the intelligence to understand these issues.
it may not take a lot of intelligence to make money (as in my example of lottery winners)BUT it does take intelligence to keep it. And when we are talking of the top 1%....yes we are talking about people that have brains...i assure you of that
and to terry: and the people that make poor choices because they lack the knowledge to make better choices ...then perhaps they shouldnt be making choices. perhaps they shouldnt play with thr big boys until they have the knowledge to make better choices.
and the government should NEVER step in....its the law of nature.The government stepping in and "helping" the poor man is why we are in the mess that we are in in the first place. the government "helped" th poor man to breed for 60 years....we paid the poorest and most illiterate unintelligent of human beings to procreate and to earn more money for doing so. Now we have their offspring, who of course dont have a clue either, screaming "unfair'..."we are being taken advantage of" ha...what a joke. now you say that the government needs to step in again to "help" the poor unintelligent guy who supposedly didnt understand the risks? it reminds me of the migrant worker who doesnt understand a word of english when its not to his advantage...but he sure knows when its payday and exactlt how much he is owed. ill bet every one of those poor helpless "victims" would have understood exactly what they had got into if their homes has appreciated a few hundred thousand instead of declined...they would know to the penny what they spent, and what they were owed and how they got there
natures law...survival of the fittest. we are all predator or prey
Bailout, shmailout... I bet those who made corupt decisions which lead to this collapse, will get bonuses with our 700++ of bailout money. How about no bailout? How about making examples of some of these criminals? At what point do we finally get p'd enough to do something? Do we have to be taxed until we are poor and hungry as the French were before they revolted?
When the government violates the people's rights, insurrection is, for the people and for each portion of the people, the most sacred of the rights and the most indispensible of duties.
Marquis de Lafayette
Martin, you pick up the torch, I'll bring the pitchforks. Insurrection, here we come!
The most intelligent people don't have the most money. The people with the most money are above average in intelligence but not at the top. Lots of people have large amounts of money through inheritance, luck, talent, discipline, hard work, savings, intelligence, and even theft. Or some combination of the above. Also a lot of rich people pay less taxes than most through loopholes or because their income is from capital gains. And if they're charged more because they're rich then that isn't very intelligent of them.
I think the poor, at least those who want to get out of poverty, should learn about money management and investing. You don't have to be very intelligent to understand the basics. I don't know why it isn't taught in public schools. It's more important than most of what is taught there.
I know probably a half dozen people that I would consider rich. These are people with successful businesses BIG homes, private planes, second homes in Hawaii etc. None of them are exceptionally intelligent from what I can tell. Most of them are hard workers though. Most of them made one or two very good decisions that made the difference between millionaire and average Joe. A couple of them made sacrifices you or me might not be willing to make. They sacrificed family in order to achieve wealth. One never got married, in fact I've never seen the guy on a date or even talk about a woman. The other chose his career over his wife and kids. Now he's single and very rich. I would not make that choice. I would choose my family over my career if it came to that.
I also know quite a few, VERY intelligent poor guys. The difference is the drive. Yes, you need some brains but you need the drive more than the brains. A normal guy with the drive to succeed will usually go much farther than a lazy genius.
a fool and his money are soon parted
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