Paying the piper

The nation’s economy is certainly in a train wreck right now, and the Obama administration is trying all sorts of things to pull the economy out of its current slump.

If you are a bank executive who made unwise business decisions, the government is going to inject new capital into your bank, take the bad loans off your hands, and limit your pay to only $500,000 a year plus bonus shares you can’t sell until you pay the government back. Not too shabby!

If you are a US auto company executive that couldn’t see the handwriting on the wall years ago and are now facing bankruptcy, the government will give you billions of dollars to keep you going, and limit your pay to only $500,000 a year plus bonus shares you can’t sell until you pay the government back. Though of course you may have to sell off a few corporate jets. Not too shabby!

If you are a homeowner who unwisely bought more house than you could afford, or unwisely accepted one of those teaser-rate adjustable mortgages that is killing you now, the government is going to use $75 billion dollars to help folks like you by lowering your payments and perhaps even reducing the principle on your loan. Not too shabby!

If you are a member of the House or Senate, that group of politicians in both parties who not only let this debacle develop, but have even helped it along in the past with unwise decisions, your job and your perks and your benefits are all safe, as is your future high-paying job among the lobbyists or in corporate life. Not too shabby!

If, on the other hand, you are just an ordinary worker or perhaps a retiree whose savings are now worth half what they were worth a year ago, and who is paying your mortgage because you only took on what you could afford, the government may possibly give you $400, and some of the bailout money may possibly eventually trickle down and help you keep your job if you have one.

If you are a small business being driven out of business because of this recession, the government isn’t going to give you anything, because you aren’t “too big to allow to fail”. Only big banks and big companies, with good connections in Washington, get the bailouts. Unless, of course, you are a construction company with good connections with whomever in your state is going to dole out the billions in infrastructure stimulus money.

But the government is sure going to take something from you someday, because there is no free lunch and someday it has to pay back all those trillions of dollars that Congress is passing out so freely, and the only place to get that money is from taxes.

I understand the urgency to get the economy going again, but it looks to me like most of the help is going to the people who caused this mess in the first place, not to the rest of us. Am I too cynical here?