Letters to the Editor
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Privatize Gains, Socialize Losses
Economists fighting economists...I like that. What happened to all that 'objectivity' and cold 'scientific' analysis supposedly at the heart of economics?
What we have here is a failure of the capitalist system. The securitization of mortgages is the financial version of Iraq. So, to bail or not to bail?
Well, what will the public get out of this? Stopping a collapse of the banking system, (bad...too big to fail?) or preserving one of the banks in the banking system. (bad for only the investors and the employees.)
The problem with government bailouts is that the people paying for it are ALWAYS the taxpayers and the people reaping the immediate benefits are ALWAYS the private owning class. If the government instead took over these assets for a fair price, or no price at all, and managed it for the interests of the taxpayers, then it could make sense.
Instead, the people recently screaming for the 'free market' change their minds when they run companies or a whole economy into the toilet. Then all of a sudden, 'government' has to ride to the rescue. Which is it folks? The key link is, they privatize the gains, and socialize the losses. It ALWAYS benefits, immediately, the owning class. And this will continue as long as capitalism continues. I think instead we should socialize the profits and socialize the losses.
Should the government prop up Bear Stearns? I am not so sure the whole economy will collapse if Bear Stearns goes under. Again, the 'taxpayer' has to get his money worth, he has to drive a very hard bargain, otherwise this is just more 'class warfare' brought to us by our 'own' government. Oh, wait, it is not really our government...