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The Great
American Taxpayer
by Carl
Hampton
09/20/2008
Risking taxpayers’ money to prevent the Lehman
Brothers collapse and the Merrill Lynch distressed sale, to Bank of America
was clearly not on the cards.
Yet somehow American taxpayers now have the
“staggering sum” of $85 billion to contend with due to the A.I.G.
bailout by the Federal Reserve.
This debt comes hot-on-the-heels of the earlier $29
billion that left taxpayers on the hook for the Bear Stearns sale to JP
Morgan Chase. It appears that the Federal Reserve has inadvertently
encouraged other Corporate Giants of America to seek bailouts.
The accumulating costs are staggering!
Guess who the cash cow will be? The extremely
overburdened, but ever-so generous, great American taxpayer!
Both Presidential nominees for the 2008 election seem
to think that tax cuts will fix the economy.
Whilst, a majority of economists, via the media, infer that we should
“consume” our way out of debt. Huh?!?
How can we consume anything, other than debt, if more
and more Americans do not have a job, and therefore no money to buy
consumables?
Ah! But then again there is that wonderful credit
bubble, which represents the entire growth in the economy of the United
States over the last 7 years! Only
$915 billion in credit card debt this year!
Perhaps, it is time to “produce” our way out of
trouble. If we are to invest,
let’s use our money to do common good.
Our great and wonderful leaders may wish to start with the following.
Rebuild areas devastated by Ike and Katrina.
Create school environments to foster an educated
population.
Build safe, financially attainable, and affordable,
communities.
Produce facilities for sensible, financially accessible
health care.
If the Government is bailing out Corporate America but
obviously cannot afford to look out for us “the people,” who put them in
power then perhaps it is time for us “the people” to start looking out
for each other!
“We cannot live for ourselves alone.
Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along
those sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as
results.” (Herman Melville – excerpt from “It Takes A Village;”
Hillary Rodham Clinton).
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