Volcanoes and such

Last night I had a vivid dream that Mt. Hood erupted. I watched plumes of black smoke rise out of the top of the mountain, followed by lava eruptions that reached the window I was looking through and lapped harmlessly against the glass. I think I must be a little concerned about the economy and the nation at large.

The cowboys on Wall Street got their spirits revived today by the hope of a second bailout proposal coming down from the heavens and saving their fortunes from loss. Of course, they would have us believe that without this bailout, Main Street's financial situation will be ruined and the middle class will be bankrupted, which is partially true. Without a bailout, the worst case scenario for me personally is that my company could go under, although I think that's extreme. The other half of the story is that even with the bailout, our financial situations will be ruined. They gambled with their futures and mine and are now trying to fearmonger and pressure me into paying for their parachutes while giving me nothing in return except for the job security I had before this all began.

I had a conversation with one of my coworkers today about how I could so strongly support the failure of Wall Street knowing that such a thing will affect me in the worst possible way. This is what I told her:

"I understand that if there’s no bailout the government is not going to act prudently and fix this problem in the myriad other, better, ways that it could be fixed. I also get that if there isn't a bailout, we will probably all end up losing our jobs. My opposition to this then is clearly cutting off my nose to spite my face (or someone else’s face...someone who really deserves it). But at the same time, I don’t have a lot of hope for the economy or the way that this will “fix” it. I think that if we don’t let it crash now (because it has been artificially inflated for a very long time and a crash is coming), it will just crash worse at a later time, probably when my kids will have to answer for it. I’d rather roll up my sleeves and suffer now so that I can create a better world for my kids instead of following in my parents’ generation’s footsteps. They soaked up all the resources, created national bad debt, harmed their neighbors in order to make a profit, and left a situation in which their kids will pay for their social security and never get any social security of their own. I know that may all be a complicated way of dealing with it, but I’d just rather face calamity head-on than postpone it."

She then asked me what my solution would be. To me, the obvious solution is to cut out the middleman on this bailout: the banks. Theoretically, the money will help banks begin to lend money again, easing the credit crunch, sending money to small and mid-sized businesses that need it. I think that if we as a nation happen to have $700 billion to inject into entrepreneurship, the government should just go ahead and do that without filtering it through privately owned banks. This sounds like a big scam to me. The government has money and businesses need it to keep the economy humming. Lend it then. No corporate CEO of a major, publicly held bank should take a cut off that transaction. Sounds like a disguised corporate parachute to me. The money lent to America's small businesses could be given at a higher priority to businesses with an emphasis on localizing food supplies, manufacturing something (anything!) domestically, and creating alternative methods of distributing these goods so that we are less reliant on goods shipped from overseas.

Another possible solution is to finally fix the healthcare system, giving us complete coverage in the same way that other industrialized nations have it. This would put hundreds of dollars per month back in the pocket of Americans, giving them extra liquidity, and relieving small businesses like the one I work for of the need to pay for my health insurance. I have long felt that America's health system is a major burden on free enterprise.

How about investing in public infrastructure? Like I said before, we could build 1,000 miles of light rail with the excess after fixing healthcare and still have enough money left over to donate bikes to poor families. This investment would employ construction workers who took a big fall when the housing boom faded. Unemployment would go down and Americans would have steady income and health coverage at a much lower overall cost to the nation than we currently pay. Sounds like a win-win-win to me. The only people who lose under this model are the wealthy risk-takers who cause these problems in the first place.

She said she didn't quite agree with me and I didn't push her to explain why not. I guess as opinionated as I am, I'm not always right and everyone is entitled to their own opinion. The bailout will happen either way, but let it be known that I opposed this for my future kids' sake.