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Edited on Fri Sep-26-08 07:46 AM by theDash
This bailout plan with do nothing but keep the housing and credit bubble inflated. The grim reality is that this bubble needs to burst, everyone is overextended on credit or on their mortgages, and are paying interest out the wazoo trying to maintain a lifestyle that they simply can not afford. There will be untold hardships for most people, but I think it's time that this country got back to a real economy, one that is based on real goods and services, not one that is mostly paper wealth, not one where money is generated from money. Money should be generated from actual products, and the services that are needed to produce those products. Not money made off of investments services or sky high interest rates that suck the real money out of the pockets of those who actually worked to produce a real product and service, only to leave them with little or nothing.
I hear people saying they are scared about what not doing a bailout would do to the average person, the person who worked hard all their life in order to live the american dream and have a secure retirement. Look around you, many in the middle class have ALREADY lost all of that. And continuing to let wall street and megacorporations transfer all the wealth from the bottom to the top ensures that the future for most Americans will be grim at best.
Our free market system needs to be completely overhauled. A stock price should be based on actual profits (or losses) of a company. It should not be able to rise on a rumor, or even on real events that promise future profit, it should only rise when the actual profit is realized (or drop when the actual loss is realized). What happens in our markets, is high rollers pour their money into a stock on news or a rumor, drive the price up quick, sell for a profit. Then an investor (person like you or I who doesn't 'play' the market on a daily basis) ends up buying a stock at an inflated price, so that even if the company continues to profit, we start out at a loss on our investment as the high rollers sell off after the excitement of the rumor or news subsides. That just simply shouldn't happen. Investors should be able to put their money into a company, and only make money if the company profits, or lose money if the company loses.
Same with commodities markets. Investors should not use the commodities markets as their casino in order to gamble and make money on every tidbit of news, and drive up prices which ends up hurting and costing everyone else. Only those who actually take delivery of the commodities and make actual products to sell should be able to determine the price of that commodity. That is the only way to get close to a 'fair' price.
But this country has turned to pure greed, and have made our entire economy one that is based on making more money from money. All these complicated derivatives and other finance products that serve as nothing more than a way to make money for nothing need to be eliminated. Our financial system should not be a casino, where the big money owns the house, and the rest of us just keep gambling on a company's future, only to find out time and time again that the deck is stacked and the odds are always with the house.
We need an economy and financial system that is real, not generating profits out of thin air. Of course, the money doesn't come out of thin air in actuality, it comes straight out of your pocket. When the government has to bail them out because of their excessive greed, it comes out of your pocket. When the price of gas and food rises, it comes right out of your pocket. When interest rates charged to the consumer knows no skyward limits, it comes right out of your pocket. When banks charge fees that rival those of payday loans, pawn shops, or title loans - it comes right out of your pocket.
So we need to decide, are we going to keep gambling on our future and prop up a system that will eventually collapse on it's own weight no matter how much money the government pours in to it, or do we bite the bullet now, endure hardships now, so that we can get back to a system that will provide true wealth and offer a sustainable dream for ALL Americans, not just a few at the top.
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