Op-Ed Goverment Bail-Out
US Government Pledges 800 Billion of Tax Payers Money to Bail- Out Broken System
Let's face it, if you or I lost 25% of someone's wealth we would be hauled into court, tried, convicted and would end-up being a guest of the state. Where is the outrage over the manner in which the elite stewards of our wealth have conducted their affairs? Is there no shame? Frankly, I suspect the dearth of rage and indignation lies in the fact that you and I are co-conspirators with the men and women of Wall Street and those who do their bidding. Greed is not necessarily a one-way street; we must be willing to suspend common sense and believe that our broker or fund manager is the best that there ever was and will continue to defy logic and the "odds" and make obscene amounts of money for us all the while keeping our well being foremost in mind. That illusion was shattered in the preceding two-weeks.
It turns out that the scoundrels with whom we entrusted our wealth, our life savings, our entire body of work and those with whom we empowered to provide governance and oversight are no better than your common scam artist you can find on any street corner. I make the argument they're far more dangerous than the everyday variety of thieves. You know the street corner scam-artist is scamming you. What you don't know is your broker and those that he works with; that pedigreed man or women with the impeccable credentials and impressive title is, in the end, no different than a common criminal. In fact I have a higher regard for the self-professed variety of thief than the array of Wall Street types.
The officers of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Bears Sterns, AIG, Enron, Country Wide Mortgage, Lehman Brothers, Tyco Cross-Com to name but a few, will live the rest of their lives comfortably and without shame. The government officials, in who we placed our trust, will comfortably be nestled in the same neighborhoods. You see it because they "got theirs" the rest of us be damned. Those of us who have been crushed by these events, financially and emotionally are left to pick up the pieces and try to start again. The baby-boomers who are nearing retirement age are compelled to suspend any thoughts of retirement and now are looking at adding 5-8 more working years to their careers. The aged and retired are now forced to make hard decisions, that they spent their entire working life guarding against. Our youth and unborn generations will spend an ungodly portion of their life's earnings attempting to repay what our government has committed just in the last two weeks tax-payers money to. That sum incidentally amounts to $800,000,000,000.00, an incredible number!
No doubt there is more bleak news on the horizon.
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