A Common Sense Appeal to Why the Bail-Out is a Bad Idea

For those who do not know about this bail-out, or for those who need a little refresher, the U.S. Government allocated $700 billion to be spent by the Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson however he wanted. I have a problem with this. First, I don't know who Henry Paulson is, and by the media's reaction, they didn't even really know who he was. That's like the President saying, "Trust me, I know a guy". Ideally speaking, we should have faith in our government to choose who does what because they have to know it better than we do. Oh wait, this is a government who hasn't really done a great job for us or themselves anyway.

Also, according to this bailout, "Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency". Why do they get away with this? Its the kind of thing that makes me want to go on a Lewis Black-esque rant. I'll ask, where's the accountability if this fails? If the economy continues to fail, will we see $700 billion out the window and have to hold our tongue from asking "where'd it go?"

Now, besides the whole Henry Paulson thing, I have another big problem with this. The key term in this bail-out is that the money was ALLOCATED by the government to many national corporations that are struggling. The problem with allocating is that the people who you give the money to have no accountability towards it. If the money dries out and the businesses and banks are still failing, who do they answer to? The people who gave them the money? Who, then, will the government answer to? Nobody. The government hasn't had to answer to anyone but their tri-fecta of similar interests for decades. (But thats for another day).

However, what you find is this: $32.4 million of the $159 billion of the money given to the banks is being re-invested by the banks to lobby in Washington. Now, logistically speaking, that is a very small percentage, but when you take into account where that $32.4 million can go instead of back to the government, it is just plain disappointing. And it really goes to show you the priorities of these companies. And maybe, just maybe you get a hint of how they got into this trouble to begin with. You can't blame it on the recession. The economy is not a mystical force. It goes up and down because of businesses and consumers. Recessions come about because one of the two previously mentioned aren't holding up their end of the bargain.

I suppose it would be fair to give my own option instead of just bashing the occurring one. What I believe they should have done was loan the money out. First, this forces the businesses to actually own up to their problems and work to solve it so that they pay the money back. And second, the money will be spent concisely to fit the businesses needs. Also, and pretty importantly, this will give the money back to the government with interest. And a business or bank fails again, then maybe it was just its time. Companies go out of business, new ones arise, its a free market, those things are bound to happen.