I Don’t Really Know, But I’ve Got Opinions Anyway

Forget introductions. I’ll just get right on track.

When Congress first came out with this $700 billion bailout plan, Americans for the most part were outraged. They were worried about their taxpayer dollars, worried about giving them to big greedy CEOs on Wall Street who screwed up 100+ year businesses and are counting on the government to just hand them a blank check to solve all their problems.

Then came the media. Yeah, I know you’ve probably heard it all before. The mainstream media’s bias. The media’s too conservative. The media’s too liberal. Naw, we aren’t talking about simple conservative or liberal talk here. The media went from being about split in the number of stories they covered on this abortion of a bailout plan to ALMOST COMPLETELY SUPPORTING IT!

I used to flip channels and be able to get both sides of the story. Now I’m only getting one side, Bush’s side. The side of the neo-conservative Republicans and hyper-liberal Democrats who support this piece of trash they call a bill. They sit and tell me that this bill is going to help the economy be better again. Obama said in a recent rally that “this isn’t the end of what we’re doing to save the economy, it’s only the beginning.” (More on that later.) What nobody is telling us, however, is how much this will cost the average American taxpayer.

Think about it for a second. $700 billion (and estimates from some business gurus claim it could be even higher) divided by… let’s say 200 million taxpayers. That’s $3,500 for the average taxpayer. Some will pay more, some less. However, this is $3,500 for not an improvement, not a social program, not something that will help our roads or parks or help on the war. No, it’s just to give to the corporate CEOs and the debtors pray that it’ll trickle down back to them so they could refinance on loans and homes they won’t pay for anyway. For someone who has learned the value of saving his entire life, this is the equivalent of telling me that my opinion doesn’t matter, simply because I don’t have a hand on Wall Street.

When the bailout bill failed yesterday 228-205, news outlets all over the place started creating stories of panic, stories of how this will bring about a financial armageddon. Seriously? Has anyone been sticking their heads out of the sand long enough to see what the immediate affects a plummeting Wall Street has had? Oil prices have dropped. The dollar is at its highest against the Euro in YEARS (.71 Euro/dollar) and the Canadian dollar and Mexican peso in months. The value of our money is going back up because people are spending less and being thrifty. In the long-term, food prices will drop. Oil will drop even further. Services will start dropping as demand drops. Houses will be affordable again. The value of the dollar would only keep going up. Savers will finally get to see beyond the 5% at-best interest that they have been seeing since the Clinton era.

After the media has reported our complaints about high gas prices, high food prices, turmoil amongst wages, high prices of rent, people having to choose between a gallon of milk and a gallon of gas…

…you’re suddenly starting to tell me that dropping prices is suddenly a bad thing?

Just because Wall Street falls doesn’t mean Main Street will too. We might get a few bumps or bruises in the short term, but overall, if people went back to basics, saved money, quit living beyond their means, we wouldn’t have to worry about this debt, and our own debts in the first place! The government could use the bailout money instead to make social jobs that are just being stalled from losing ANYWAY because of this bill. The wages may stay the same, but as prices go down, the working class will be able to afford both gas and milk again.

So next time, before you’re one of the 20+% of Americans who have suddenly changed their minds about this bailout bill, ask yourself… is the media really speaking for me?

Considering that the media is suddenly backing behind something President Bush says, I can surely say no.

Ladies and gentlemen, greed, for lack of a better phrase, is killing our country. Greed isn’t working.

Pardon the movie paraphrase, but I’ve got a good reason to pull out the “Wall Street” routine here. Namely, the fact that Wall Street has recently been more up-and-down than an average New Orleans Saints season. Financial institutions are collapsing left and right thanks to questionable business practices and sketchy mortgages. The dollar is falling faster than Wile E. Coyote off of his 37th cliff. And yet, our government wants to take anywhere from 700 billion to one freakin’ trillion dollars and spread it around to big financial companies that are, to quote a Creed song, “six feet from the edge.”

Obama and McCain want to see the bailout happen. Congress is arguing over it, with some people even claiming it a necessary evil. It’s moving forward, and it’s likely going to happen. There’s just a few slight problems with this picture.

We can’t afford it, and most Americans don’t want Wall Street bailed out anyway. And I can tell you why.

This extravagant amount of money isn’t going to come out of nowhere. This green paper doesn’t grow on trees; it’s technically more of a fabric, anyway. There is no vast ocean out there of untapped money like there is with, say, oil. The money for the bailout has got to come from somewhere, and any thinking person knows where the money’s going to come from. The wallets of taxpayers.

Every single one of us who buy things, run to the Post Office every April 15th, fuel up our cars and update our vehicle tags pay some sort of tax. Heck, most of us have taxes taken directly out of our paychecks; I myself have the maximum taken out of each paycheck. That money goes into the government coffers. So when the government needs money to do something like fight a war or buy out Wall Street, the first place they go is to that taxed revenue. If that’s not enough, then they take out loans from other countries (and hike up our National Debt), but mostly it’s our money that funds whatever Washington wants to do.

The thing is that the whole reason for the bailout is because the institutions involved are mostly credit companies and mortgage dealers. So everyone who has a credit card or a mortgage backed by Lehman Bros., Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and all the other companies that have recently been in financial trouble will essentially end up paying twice over for their credit cards or mortgages. Those of us who have neither (the only credit debt to my name is student loans, and they get paid on time) are having to pay for services we never use. Hardly fair, isn’t it?

The majority of American people are beginning to see this, and they don’t like it one bit. But aside from the money flow issue, there’s another problem with the bailout, one of bigger importance. The fact is that none of the companies being bailed out are being held to any standard of accountability for their actions. They messed up, and somehow, they’re getting rewarded for hornswoggling people all across American with their sketchy mortgages and easy credit. The CEOs of these companies are getting paid x millions of dollars because their companies are failing. Call me crazy, but the way I was brought up, you take responsibility for your actions, or you get in double trouble for lying about it.

AIG, Lehman Bros, Merrill Lynch, etc….these companies made bad decisions that lead their companies to the precipice. It is not our place to say “we’ll help you to get back on solid ground” when they put themselves there in the first place. If these companies cannot fix their own danged mess, then maybe they should fall. Maybe other companies can learn from their mistakes. But instead, by throwing money at them, we are essentially letting the financial institutions get away with murdering our economy.

Make no mistake: this bailout WILL NOT HELP THE ECONOMY. In fact, it may only make the economy worse, and I will honestly be surprised if when it passes (which seems inevitable at this point), there is not a riot. Whether you live off of credit or whether you don’t, there is no justification for throwing away money like this. In fact, it’s honestly shameful that we ever came to this point, because this could have all be easily prevented. And I’m going to tell you how.

I honestly believe that this will work and will help teach people enough financial responsibility, especially consider how close to a second Depression we are. as soon as you leave the parents’ house, do not get any credit cards of your own. Don’t go and mortgage a house; rent an apartment. Go out and get a job that starts out at minimum wage. Pay all your bills, and try to save a little in a savings account. If you can manage to make ends meet or even live comfortably of of the money you have after, say, two or three years, then you are ready to manage money you don’t have…which is essentially what credit is. Don’t bemoan the fact that your credit may disappear; LEARN TO LIVE WITHOUT IT. It’s doable; I should know, because I’ve been doing it ever since I started working and living on my own when I finished schooling.

I make $7 an hour, and that’s before taxes. I’m buying a house, mortgage free, by making payments I can afford to make to a very understanding seller: my brother-in-law. I live 16 miles from where I work, and thanks to a 20 mile per gallon truck with a 15 gallon tank, I can fill up my truck once a week and still be able to pay all my bills, buy food, and put a little in a savings account each paycheck. Sometimes my debit card gets me in trouble, but I have no credit cards, and I’m able to rebound easily. All-in-all, I live comfortably, although granted, I only take care of one person and no pets. Living without credit is doable. We don’t need this bailout. It’s a waste of our money. It’s a trillion-dollar screwjob.

(Update 9/29/08 5:00pm CDT: The House voted it down, 205-228. No re-vote today. Miracles do happen.)

It’s a new day for idontreallyknow.net. A new look, a new format. Whether you want to or not, you’re going to my political views.

You’re probably not going to agree with what I have to say, and you know what? That’s just fine and dandy. But if we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna do this right. First, I’m gonna lay down the ground rules. After that, I’m gonna let you all know a little of what I’m about so you know what to expect from me.

1. Personal attacks will not be tolerated. I will delete unwarranted flames as soon as I see them. That, my fellow web surfers, is a promise.
2. I appreciate correction, especially if you help me out and point me to a credible source where I can get my info straight. HOWEVER! If you can’t tell me why you think I’m wrong, you will be humiliated unapologetically.
3. I try my best not to use coarse language. I expect you to do likewise. Thus, cursing me out will likely result in a deletion, lest you get the verbal beatdown you deserve.

Now a little about me politically…

I grew up in a pretty conservative household; however, when I left home to become my own person, I started developing my own opinions. I’ll admit, I did grow up in a fundamentalist Christian church, but when I moved away, I started to develop my own faith and my own opinions about life and politics. As such, I drifted center-ward, admittedly growing more cynical with each step. Now, I am pretty much as dead centrist as you can get, although at the same time, I’m also borderline anarchist. I have a deep love for the country of my birth, the United States of America, and yet, at the same time, the government often puzzles and infuriates me. Sometimes, I’ll agree with Republicans on certain issues, and other times, with Democrats, but it depends on the issue and the viewpoint. On the whole, though, I tend to believe that both sides have their dopes and are both flawed.

I believe what I believe, and while I’m not completely close-minded, I am extremely opinionated, and I can get very involved in causes that I believe are important. Case in point: I’m active in the legalization and regulation of online poker, because I play online poker fairly regularly since I can’t play at my local tribal casino very often. Also, on a personal level, while I’m a little slow to anger, if I’m pressed to the breaking point, I can get extremely vicious. One of my nicknames is the Dark Firebird, and I will singe.

That’s all you need to know. So brace yourselves…the fireworks are about to begin. idontreallyknow.net version 2.0 is alive.