How do you explain something to people that you yourself don’t even understand completely, or even tangentially? I don’t know how to do it. Neither does the media. Neither do Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke. Can someone please explain to me why we need to dump our hard-earned taxpayer money into underperforming financial companies? Shit, with $700 billion up for grabs, I could probably solve a few other international crises or social and economic justice issues. Someone needs to be frank with the American people and tell us what’s up, because you can’t trust that congress actually fully understands it all, either.

First off, read this piece by Devilstower. It’s free from political nonsense. It rocks.

Then read some Krugman pieces. That will wet your whistle.

Now that you’ve completed your required readings, I have to ask you a question– are you feeling the direct result of the collapse of the financial system? If you are, chances you’re rich and I hate you. If you lost your home, you’re feeling the crunch, and I see you. You are the victim. But right now, the financial corporations who were irresponsible with their lending are crying to the big bad government that they are the victim. It’s not our fault, those poor people thought they could afford houses! They thought they could afford stocks! Screw you.

Literally a week ago, John McCain and George Bush said that the economy was fundamentally strong. All of a sudden, it’s like the United States is coming to an end. We will all die unless we give this $700 billion away, no strings attached to Paulson. You know what it is, right? Now that it’s bad enough, and the climate has been painted as so “dire”, now Bush and Co. can get away, from a political standpoint, with funnelling more money into rich people’s pockets. You like the free market? Well fucking let it work, you bitches.

I happened to flip by MSNBC during the congressional hearings yesterday, and Elijah Cummings, one of Baltimore’s representatives, asked a question along the lines of “what is this bailout going to do for my constituents, the everyday poor and middle class citizens who don’t own assets, who are defaulting on mortgages? What is the bailout going to look like for them?” I think this is a good point. Sure, stocks going down and fuel prices going up puts pressure on all kinds of sectors of the economy, raising prices across the board, especially on things like utilities and food stuffs. So, is the bailout going to directly alleviate people who are feeling the crunch on rising living costs? No. Once again, we are giving rich people our money to fix their mess. It’s complete bullshit. If you believe in the free market, then you gotta let it burn and eat the consequences. Us poor people will figure it out. We aren’t beholden to the fickleness of the stock market. We can adapt, but only if you don’t give away 700,000,000,000 of our money, you fools! That money ain’t free. We worked for it. We sweat for it. Some bled for it. Hank and Ben, you better damn well give me a good reason for spending our money on big money when we could easily use it to buy food and small capital, and buy back our forclosed homes. Let us poor consumers decide which companies are worth bailing out, with our freshly minted $3,000 dollar checks.

There would be a lot of adminstrative nightmares if that money could actually alleviate concerns that everyday Americans have. But it would be well worth it. Just think how much everyone would respect the government for making the moral choice. The media and financial elites would be pissed. Screw them.

This is all fantasy land, though, so back to real life. If we really want to spend money, we should buy up bad credit, restoring confidence that way. Don’t give money to companies who don’t need it.

“McCain would rather lose and election than win an election.”