The Senate easily passed the bailout bill last night, while most Americans were busy watching the Chicago Cubs lose. The Senate couldn't be bothered to hold a hearing to listen to a single dissenting voice, although nearly 400 economists, including Noble laureates, have pointed out that this bailout will solve nothing.
It’s been one hundred years since the Cubs last won it all and it made me think about the generations that passed down their legacies over that period. In my own Dutch lineage we began with immigrants daring to leave their world behind to start from scratch in another continent. They fought a great war, rebuilt their new lives and worked together to prosper without credit cards or much of a banking system. They relied on each other and had the courage to do the difficult thing when it had to be done. The next generation was a group of their children who quickly became young adults when a famine and worldwide depression took hold. My dad was fourteen when he took over the family truck farm business after the death of his father. His situation was not uncommon. They personally reacted to the effects of their economy and adapated hard changes in their lives to insure the future. My dad’s generation worked hard to sacrifice, survive and save, before they were called to engage in another great war. Mom’s, sisters and brothers adapted to the immediate effects by taking jobs, rationing food and gas and growing ‘victory gardens’. The men that survived the war returned to a different world than the one they left, yet they persevered, restored their families, and worked to save money for the “American Dream” of ownership. They relied on each other and had the courage to do the hard thing when it had to be done.
I can’t tell you the exact reasons why those legacies of work, sacrifice and saving weren’t passed down. Some claim that the process was perverted by mind-numbing pastimes and advertising, but the chain was clearly broken. Our legacy, as it currently stands, will be one of excess. The next generation won’t look back at images of the smiling but lean, grizzled folks I see in our old albums. The next generation will look back on an obese heritage. Obese in every way. Many of us grew fat, lazy, self centered, and materialistic. Our generation was too busy with themselves to safeguard the future. We bought into credit and speculation. We gambled on stocks, we lived beyond our means, we turned our kids over to strangers. We chose entertainment and instant gratification over meaningful relationships. We ‘deserved’ it all and didn’t care about the future as long as we got what we wanted right now.
Today the House will begin deliberations on the same ‘gamblers bailout bill’ that they defeated last week. The substance of the bill is the same except another $150 billion in ‘pork’ has been added. We’ve set a new benchmark for waste. It’s only a trillion dollars! You should be outraged that they’re taking your money and enriching themselves. You should be outraged that they’re dooming your children to failure. You should be outraged that they’re trampling the Constitution! I'm not concerned with revenge or envy. This bill only makes the problem worse and 'mortgages' your children's futures to do it! I’ve faxed and emailed my representatives to let them know what I thought of this ‘obscene’ bill. It was pretty easy. I didn’t have to march on the capitol, I didn’t have to wait in an office lobby for an appointment. No picket signs. No riot police. No war to wage or rationing to endure. All I had to do was take a few minutes away from the Cubs game and hit a few keys on my computer’s keyboard.
Most of our politicians have lied to us. We let them. They’ve put together a scheme to steal from us and enrich themselves and their pals. We let them. Our local banks are not in crisis. Our local businesses have not shut down. Only the most leveraged home and business owners might possibly suffer from this, but this bill won’t help them or us anyway! It is NOT a mainstreet problem. It’s not even a Wallstreet problem. It’s the investment banking gambler’s problems and one of the worst of them, Henry Paulson, will be holding the checkbook with the power of a king vested in him. He joined the Investment banking firm Goldman Sachs in 1974, eventually becoming its chief executive. His compensation package, according to reports, was $37 million in 2005. His net worth has been estimated at over $700 million. Goldman Sachs is one of the few investment banks that has not gone out of business in the past few weeks and its shareholders stand to gain immensely from this bailout. Paulson has personally built close relations with China, which will also gain power and wealth from this bailout since they're allowed to transfer their 'toxic assets' to the U.S. by the terms of this bill. In July 2008 it was reported by The Daily Telegraph that: "Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson has intimate relations with the Chinese elite, dating from his days at Goldman Sachs when he visited the country more than 70 times." Is this really the man who you want to trust your country's future to?
My fear is that our generation will be too self-absorbed to be bothered trying to stop this. Please take some time today to contact your elected officials. These websites may be down when you try (another attempt to subvert YOUR system of representation!), but please be persistent. My own Congressman (Jerry Weller) refused to honor his commitment to his constituents and was the only congressman NOT to vote at all. I hope he shows up for the next vote because I’ve already told him what I want him to do-and you should, too! It really is the least we can do now, but its something.
The House website:
http://www.house.gov/
The AFT website:
http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/bailout_092308
