The Three Decade Long Scam

Despite a massive government effort to shore up the nation's financial system, Americans are deeply pessimistic about whether it will work anytime soon, according to a new Ipsos / McClatchy poll.

American Scofflaw
It took thirty years to get the economy into this mess. Thirty years of selling our manufacturing overseas, looting the infrastructure, and transforming the stock market from planning on dividends to speculating on tomorrow's price gain. A couple of "stay rich" schemes played on the backs of the taxpayers is not going to fix the system and the taxpayers know it.

It is estimated that the plan will cost the taxpayers half a trillion dollars. Now, setting aside that the actual cost will probably be higher (as it was in the 1980s S&L bailout), that works out to about $1600.00 for every man, woman and child in the US. For those who are in the stock market, this is a sweet deal because they get to walk away from hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses for that $1600.00 so expect them to cheer for the plan. But remember that there are many people in the US, such as everyone children or the elderly, who do not and cannot cough up $1600, so the reality is that for actual taxpayers, the cost will be much higher.

And in the end, it still comes down to patching a system that is fatally flawed. Bush isn't interested in fixing the system; he just needs to hold it together until the end of the year (or at least until November 4th). After that, it's some other President's problem.