The Bailout is Starting at the Wrong End

It is my childlike and somewhat juvenile opinion that the bailout of America is starting at the wrong end of the spectrum. While government has decided to give large companies money, the average citizen still doesn't have the money to spend on the product. That being said, wouldn't it be more beneficial to all if money was given to the citizens instead of to the large companies?

The population in the United States is approximately 303,824,640 and out of that about 80,000,000 file tax returns. The stimulus/bailout package is running at about $747 Billion (that is nine zeros following the original three). So, by my math, if that money was instead divided between the American taxpayers, they would receive $9,837.50. Even if everyone just spent 1/2 the money and hid the other half in their mattress, that is still almost $400 Billion going back into the economy. With that much money being spent, it seems our economy would get the kick-start it so badly needs. Do you think the people running the country even thought of this? Wouldn't it be easier than what they are doing now?

Too Bad George Wouldn't Understand This!

So here it is, my paragraph with all my new words. Will take comments and suggestions.

In this time of recession, the resulting lack of spending/playing money is ubiquitous. The hubris of the last administration is no more apparent than in the present market place where the recession is so blatantly "in your face". Having ignored all the signs regarding the financial down slide that the United States was about to take in order to finance a "war on terror"was arrogance in itself. But to be so didactic as to foist our beliefs on people who do not necessarily think or process in the manner in which we do was the ultimate in egocentric behavior. There is nothing so parsimonious as the unfair nonacceptance of differences of opinions or values, especially when these are not necessarily individual but rather those of a whole ethnic group. To perceive that they would even want the types of freedoms that we have is above the pale, and to take whatever order they had and give them freedoms they do not understand was fecund ground for terrorism to REALLY take affect. And we and our troops and contract workers that are still there are left mendicant for retaliation. We should have been more sophrosyne, like the French. It probably gets in the craw of some to admit that the "frogs" were actually correct in their surmise of the Middle East situation. Thank the voting gods that we now have not only another man in office, but another party. Hopefully, he will be able to extemporize using good sense and circumlocution to not only get us out of this useless war in Iraq but to bring about some positive results in the American financial market. If he can't I fear the next election will be nothing but an osculation good-bye for the Democrats

Rewards for Failure

I look at this picture and understand exactly the want to put fingers around another's neck and choke the living daylights out of them. In yesterday's Washington Post I read and reread Mr. Libby's editorial explaining the reasons bonuses were paid to certain employees. In "Repairs, and Repayment", he makes this profound statement:

"Mistakes were made at AIG, and on a scale that few could have imagined possible." He goes on to state, "...AIG has made a set of retention payments to employees based on a compensation system that prior management put into place...I would never have approved the retention contracts....It was distasteful to have to make these payments. But we concluded that the risks to the company, and therefore the financial system and economy, were unacceptably high."

In today's paper, I read that he asked that the awards be returned. Some employees did so while others grudgingly kept their take. When asked by Congress for the names of these people, Mr. Libby balked and used the excuse that these certain employees are too good to lose. My only comment after mulling over his excuses for bad behavior was "WTF?"

I don't know about the rest of the United States but this simple citizen is so sick of the questionable choices made by upper management regarding outrageously high bonuses for poor decisions, unethical choices, and basic bad behaviour. Why should we settle for excuses? Then, he goes so far as to comment that he didn't want to lose these employees who would have walked if not given their compensation? Let them walk! In our struggling economy do you think they will actually leave a company that is still paying their salary? Does he not understand the job market today?

It is attitudes such as Mr. Libby's that have gotten us in the financial and moral crisis in which we find ourselves today. But this is the way we have raised the present generation. These employees are the same people that went to birthday parties for others and expected to take home lots of treats themselves. These are the same people who were raised to believe that EVERYONE is a winner, EVERYONE gets chosen for the team, EVERYONE gets a star. They have not learned that there are no rewards for making a muck of something. They have not learned the lesson of true failure. And until we take a step back and LEARN from our mistakes rather than be given bonuses for all the bad choices we make, we never are going to get it and the downward spiral will continue.