I don't want to see taxpayer money used to save Wall Street. I want Wall Street's fucking CEOs, CFOs, COOs, and brokers who walked away with uncountable billions to kick the cash in to save their precious "free market" system that seems desperately to need a government titty to suck on. Bullshit. If the extreme free marketers (and I actually respect the ones in Congress who voted against the bailout, because at least they think that the system should live or die by its own logic) are true believers, then the market needs to sort itself out.
Of course, the myth is that there was ever an unfettered free market. Look, Congress sells the tax laws to firms and individuals who can afford to lobby them every year. Why is the tax code bigger than the Encyclopedia Brittanica? Because it contains exemptions and exceptions and loopholes up the wazoo and even exempts employees for the Internal Revenue Service for liability in its interpretation.
Let me put it to you this way--if you can't afford your own personal tax lawyer, you're getting fucked.
The system is a rigged game between government and corporate America (which are essentially indistinguishable these days--just ask where Henry Paulson comes from) and is played to extract as much wealth as possible from hardworking but naive people while avoiding revolution or even true reform. Thanks to a compliant (or perhaps complicit) media, we are kept distracted or lied to or prevented from discovering information that might create a balance of power, but which has concentrated power and wealth into fewer and fewer hands.
And the seams of this wicked operation are finally showing.
By the way, I and many others lost more than 7 percent of our worth yesterday. That hurts, believe me (I was hoping for a nice retirement someday), but if the system has to crumble a bit more before Americans start paying attention to the real problem, so be it.
Oh, by the way, isn't it interesting that while banks/investment firms (Glass-Steagle's repeal erased the distinction) get bailed out, if you are in danger of defaulting on your student loans or your mortgage, no such luck. And claiming that somehow this will benefit the average schmuck like me is a flat out lie. And as I said in an earlier post, when someone is pressing you on time in a deal, walk away and get more information. Never negotiate in haste. And I don't give a shit what even Barack Obama says about the urgency, never mind "Crash" McCain's idiotic rantings. This whole thing stinks.
4 comments:
I don't think I've ever agreed with you more in my LIFE, Olaf! And I always agree with you!!! Keep it coming! You are a light in the darkness of these troubled times!!
cb
You're too kind, but thank you for the good words.
Thank heavens I'm out of the country right now and somewhat removed from what I imagine is a media overload on this "rescue" nee bailout. Funny how even Obama is buying into this language shift, which shows how dependent both parties are on the golden teat of the financial industry.
However, we're stuck with the system we've got for now, so I hope this all becomes the stake through the heart of the Republican "free market" crap and the end of the ridiculous Reagonomic fallacies that have governed the last 28 years.
What is particularly fascinating to me here in Berlin is how much of the American protests against Wall Street that the Germans are seeing on their news reports. I wonder if Americans are getting this coverage.
Wow, I really can't believe this, but I agree with about 95% of your latest rant. I would even go a step farther in that EVERY SINGLE politician that votes for this pork-ladden sham of a "rescue" be investigated and tried. At the very least for corruption and ethics violations, and at most treason. The only part I disagree with you on was the swipe at Reagan. It started before that. Carter ran the economy into the fucking ground.
C.
Let's not forget the oil crunch of 1973 that didn't seem to register on the political consciousness of America, even though Carter tried, once he became president, to get us to understand the changes that would be required. He was laughed at. Now that does not excuse his failures, but for me the total disregard for the perils of Mideast oil dependency is the inflection point of the plunge into our current disaster.
In any case, glad to hear your comments, and I think investigating those who vote yea is a damned good idea. See my next post for the latest outrage.
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