In the spirit of Christmas and general goodwill toward all, I am glad that the world economy won’t crumble, and the auto industry employees of this country won’t lose their jobs. But I sure am tired of bailouts.
It pays to make terrible cars and stupid decisions, and then blame it all on the unions. These companies’ fat-cat CEOs make more in one year than most of their employees will see in ten. Why don’t they just forfeit their salaries for a while and bail their own damn asses out?
If you’ve listened to This American Life lately, you’ll know that the recent Wall Street disaster is mostly due to greedy rich guys playing games, selling stuff for ridiculous amounts that they don’t actually own – and often, stuff that doesn’t even exist. This is illegal everywhere but Wall Street, and surprise! Now we know why. And now we get to pay for these rich guys’ experiments.1
Meanwhile, in the USA in 2007, there were 37.3 million people living at the poverty level – plus 12% more living below that. And there were 45.7 million people without health insurance coverage of any kind.2 Where’s their bailout? I’ll tell you: It’s being paid to the same people who bitch and moan about our taxes going to fund all those “welfare cheats.”
I know none of this is news to anyone. I’m just superfuckinpissed, as Kevin would say. 3
[tags]bailouts, auto industry, Wall Street, This American Life[/tags]
- Yes, experiments. Listen to the TAL shows and prepare to weep. [↩]
- Read the US Census Press Release. [↩]
- Hat tip to Jo for the funny picture! [↩]