Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Capitalism FAILS

I LOVE whoever is holding up this sign behind Paulson. That's the funniest thing that's come out of this whole mess.

As I'm sure you all can guess, Ashley is not pleased about this $700 billion bail out. Something about it just doesn't seem quite fair to me, and of course as a bargain hunter I cannot condone this type of behavior.

So you gambled on real estate and lost your ass and the gov is going to help you back up....I gambled on real estate, lost my ass, and I'm going to be forced to help you back up while struggling to bail water out of my own sinking ship....Hmmmm.

So, in my spare time (and I don't have a lot these days), I have come up with a new solution. Instead of giving the $700 billion to billionaires--let's give it to everyone who can't pay their bills!

In turn, they'll pay their bills and stop being homeless and banks will have money again and the world can continue to go round! Also, naturally any executive working at one of these failed corporations will donate their salary and assets (because you lose all that shit anyway when you go bankrupt...trust me, I've checked) to the deficit and they'll have to hope that our social service system works well enough to care for them in their time of need.

See? Easy as that. If I wasn't so busy doing more important things, like being a mother, I'd run for office.

18 comments:

Stephanie said...

oohhh I do love that sign!

I fall on the opposite side of the political aisle from you, but I completely and utterly agree. I work in one of the hard hit industries, and my company has been severely affected. However, it isn't MY fault that the Board of Directors can't keep their spending dick in their pants.

Seriously.

I'm pissed...and my company can go completely under if things don't go right.

I just think it is bullshit. I think it is an anger that is crossing the aisle.

Nicole said...

I absolutely agree!

Maddness of Me said...

Amen to that sister.

It doesn't seem quite right because it smells like all the other shitty jazz that Bush has bullied through.

Whenever he is saying "sign it now sign it now sign it now", it needs to be looked at a lot closer.

I guarantee you there is some squirrely shit buried in there that will come back to bite us all in the ass.

Hopefully Obama can unravel it all.

Preppy Pettit said...

OOOOH! Such B.S.!I just told Paul the other day we should give the money to the people.

Anonymous said...

You have a great plan. I've been trying to sell a house for over a year (I changed jobs and had to move to another city just before the bottom fell out) and every ounce of cash I have seems to get sucked out between mortgage, extra electric bill, $5/gallon gasoline, and milk & eggs.

You're plan makes much more sense and is way more fair to the people who have been screwed by the poor decisions of big coorporations. Thank you! Maybe you could be Veep.

Anonymous said...

I believe something has to be done so our whole economic system doesn't fail (ya know ~ Great Depression: The Sequel) but I like your idea much better than theirs!!

Ashley for President 2008!

Melodie said...

I don't like the situation at all. I don't like the idea of a bail out, although I do understand the reasoning behind it. I don't think your idea is a good one either. I don't see why those of us who haven't screwed up, and are paying our bills (even though we may be struggling) have to foot the bill for those who have screwed up. I don't think that giving money to people who aren't paying their bills is the right thing to do. I don't think there is any good solution to this problem.
I'm inclined to say, "Screw 'em all." They got themselves into this situation, let them deal with the consequences. Unfortunately, that will only screw-over us good citizens even more when there are no longer any banks left.

Unknown said...

Yeah, but good guys are suffering too. There are people who have saved their money, not overspent, lived their normal old lives and then lost a job, had to relocate and sell a house or pay rent on a new one, etc. who are suffering because the economy is crashing because these assholes didn't do their job and make sure they had money before they lent it. AIG has been lending themselves money because they are out of money...explain that. If I have to choose between helping out private citizens or helping out some a-hole that got his $20 million bonus this year, I'm going with the private citizens, even if they could've made better choices.

I like how Kucinich pointed out that their profits were their profits but now their losses are our losses...nice.

Melanie Sheridan said...

Hear hear! I just ran into a former co-worker. She was just laid off. We were both in the real estate industry.

I have not been able to find a job where the pay cut will still allow me to put our son into daycare so I can go to said job and still contribute to the household finances.

Student loans? Not getting paid. I've had to defer them which only screws me even more later.

The bailout situation stinks like rotten fish.

Maddness of Me said...

amen to that Ashley!

Unknown said...

I also have to admit that I'm not one of the above referenced good guys. We totally took a gamble using our savings to buy investment property--a very well researched gamble by two real estate professionals (and seriously, I know my shit when it comes to real estate. Or "knew". In hindsight I can tell you THE EXACT DEAL that was the giant red flag that the bubble was bursting.)

We knew it was a gamble, we took it, we pay the consequences.

It's just frustrating as the little guy who made the same mistake on a waaaaaaaaaay smaller scale to have to pay for the big guy's mistake while facing the possibility of losing everything for real.

I cannot even begin to tell you how many people, people in banking even, have told us to mail the keys to the condo back to the bank. It sucks to be struggling every single day (remember, I live without Tivo now!!) to do the right thing and then to hear about a $700 billion (that no one has) bail out.

And no matter how well you plan, shit can happen. You'd be amazed how fast your savings will dwindle after a few months of no job or being unable to sell your house but having to. There are good people that are losing their only home and the rising cost of gas and groceries affects everyone.

The bargain board has this mentality of "Should've planned better, sucks to be you" but there's only so much planning you can do. Even if you have six months salary saved, it'll only last six months...

Joy said...

Amen sister, this comming from someone who has gone thru their savings trying to pay the everyday bills. Hubs and I just had the talk the other day about what are we to do, which bills can not be paid without us getting totally screwed.

Ya know the gas thing here is driving me nuts, I saw it jump .34 in 1 day. Sure I could put my kid on the bus BUT then that would mean my 6yr old get on a bus a 6:30am hr and 15 min before he has to be at school and not get home til 3:30pm 45 min after school lets out, Oh and then there is the little thing of kids as old as 8th graders being on the bus with him, um yea NO.

Melodie said...

I think you missed my point. Basically, we're all suffering losses, but why should I have to give my money to someone else when I need it just a badly as they do? If the money is getting passed around to the people (and obviously this is hypothetical since that's not what's happening), why shouldn't I be able to have some of it? Why is someone else more deserving than I?

Unknown said...

Well yeah, ideally no one would be getting bailed out of anything, but if it absolutely had to happen, I'd rather real people get help than the CEOs making more for a bonus than I'll see in my life.

Maddness of Me said...

Off topic, sorry. Sometimes I can't control my ideas.

Some days I wish I had a blog like yours Ashley. I would tweak people every day. First I would start by asking who thinks it is hypocritical to bash the hell out of Jamie Spears for having a baby at 17, call her white trash and say she is glorifying teenage pregnancy...

... then hold up the Palin family like they are the almighty answer to family values because Bristol Palin is having her baby "despite" the fact she is 17.

I wonder what people think.

Mitch said...

Yeah, this whole thing scares me because I don't totallyunderstandit. (Sorry,I'm.too.tired.to.fix.the.spaces).

We're one of those families who did the loan right, didn't buy above our means, have never been late on a payment, and ran into bad luck. Our savings and my severance are completely tapped out and we literally are at the point where this month we can't pay our mortgage (for the first time EVER). (BTW - E got a job!) Which is going to put us back to slightly less where we need to be, and we'll be able to pay them in a couple weeks, but it makes me sick to even be late!

So, if this bailout isfound to be necessary, so beit. BUT, if Ifind out that the CEO of said bailedout company gets his $200K bonus at x-mas, I'm leadingarevolt.

Maddness of Me said...

I'm completely confused as to what the package has in it. I am hearing that it is really capital that is being put up and in the long run the country will make money off the deal (they are loans, supposedly nobody is getting anything for free?).

So I'm confused, and nervous at the same time. Any time Bush says sign it or else, I start to sweat.

Life, Love And Lola said...

I've said it before and I'm saying it again...

ASHLEY FOR PRESIDENT!