I don't understand all this "bailout" talk.
Financial institutions. Car makers. State governments. And takers of student loans?
I'm no economist, and I don't even play one on tv. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist, or even an economist, to know that taking money from the productive members of society and giving it away isn't a recipe for success.
As far as the financial institutions and car makers go, the market doesn't work if the taxpayers shield people from bad economic decisions. Next time I go to Las Vegas, I want the casino to shield me from any losses. How long will Caesar's last doing that? Not long.
Plenty of people took out home loans that everyone knew they couldn't afford. I'd been hearing about ARMs' "resetting", in big numbers, for a few years. This so-called crisis was man-made, predictable, and necessary to correct the mistakes being made.
Government needs to get back to doing what the Constitution says it should do: establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty.
Telling banks they must lend to people who can't afford loans doesn't promote the general welfare. Creating autonomous government entities to back such loans doesn't promote the general welfare. Giving, even loaning, money to failing businesses--I can't imagine the Founders ever had any such intent.
Paying for college educations? I don't remember that being an enumerated power. No, I'm not ready to go so far as to say the government can do no more than the Constitution says--even the Founders "stretched" it, and NASA is a good thing--but such stretching must be minimal.
Darren
ReplyDeleteI don’t know if you saw a report that some newspapers in Connecticut are looking at closing and a state legislator may want a bailout.
http://www.reuters.com/article/reutersEdge/idUSTRE4BU53T20081231?sp=true
I absolutely love the last part of this quote:
“Relying on government help raises ethical questions for the press, whose traditional role has been to operate free from government influence as it tries to hold politicians accountable to the people who elected them. Even some publishers desperate for help are wary of this route.
Providing government support can muddy that mission, said Paul Janensch, a journalism professor at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, and a former reporter and editor.
‘You can't expect a watchdog to bite the hand that feeds it,’ he said.”
Reminds me of a discussion I had with my brother-in-law, the newspaper editor the mid 90s. I told him it would be nice if the press would be a watchdog on Slick Willie. They’ve been the general Ministry of Propaganda for the left since the late 60s, in the appointed position since Clinton came on the scene and they been a whore for B Hussein Obama for the last eighteen months.
Its seems that the new mantra of the United States is..."let no one suffer, for any reason."
ReplyDeleteThat, in my opinion, is not what has brought us success in the past, nor will it in the future.
So where's my handout?
ReplyDeleteNow leaving the bullpen to pitch for a handout for his industry is Larry Flynt, infamous for Hustler magazine.
ReplyDelete