Lately the US government has been bowing before big corporations who threaten to break the world economy by way of bailouts. In March of this year the Federal Reserve had given a $30 billion bailout package to JPMorgan Chase to acquire the fallen investment firm Bear Sterns. A few ago the Treasury Department agreed to a $200 billion bailout package of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Earlier this week the Federal Reserve handed out an $85 billion bailout package to insurance giant AIG. The bailout tab is at $315 billion in just the last few months, with more possible bailouts in the near future it could rise much higher.

The government has been bailing out big corporations which made poor investment decisions because if any of these entities had failed it could have pushed the world’s economy into a recession, possibly even a depression. The feds are rich dads just saving their children from catastrophe. But in doing so they have set precedence that big corporations can make risky investment decisions because when those decisions pan out big corporations and their shareholders can buy yachts and Ferraris, yet lose nothing if they don’t profit, as long as they take enough consumers hostage. When these same risky investments fail “Daddy Reserve” will just come to the rescue and big corporations can just say it “charge it” to my “Daddy Reserve Card”. This is just like a spoilt child charging everything to his/her father’s account. At least in a child-father situation the father is responsible for paying off the borrowed sum, but in the “Daddy Reserve” scenario we the American taxpayers are responsible for paying off the commitments the reserve has made to bailout these big corporations.

If big corporations can be bailed out why doesn’t the government bailout every consumer who is in over his/her head with credit card debit or student loans or auto loans or home loans or any other loan that they no longer have the capacity to pay off? Instead of the Federal Reserve helping the consumer, they have forced additional debit on to us, about $1,050 onto the shoulders of each child, teen, and adult in the US. Don’t worry that isn’t a lot, you already are on the hook for about $32,000 in national debit, plus depending upon where you live you might owe additional state, county, or city (yes even cities, just ask the residents of the bankrupt city of Vallejo) debits. All-in-all the federal government puts each newborn into about $33,000 in debit the moment he/she is born, you can add personal debit such as medical bills afterwards.

Is this the laissez-faire capitalist system that was supposed keep the economy always running? The ever increasing government debit for corporate and individual social programs is not a smart economic system. If the feds are going to offer bailouts to corporations they need to hold all executives, directors, and major shareholders responsible for their actions. But not by holding long trials and then sending those responsible off to white collar criminal institutions (also known as home away from home) but by immediately seizing the assets of these individuals and their families and using these assets to help fund the bailouts. Before the government holds these corporations responsible we need to hold our government officials responsible as well. With elections only forty some days away help elect officials, representatives, senators, vice-president and president who are fiscally responsible and willing to hold big businesses accountable for their actions, not ones who will come back to take more away from you.

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