Hail the idiocy of the USA's House Of Representatives
1/10/08
I am acutely aware that I'm a British citizen criticising the USA's domestic financial policy but suffice it to say, the rejection the $700 billion bail out proposed by Hank Paulson is one of the stupidest things I've ever heard. Either you don't care, or you're head is so far up your ass, you're vomiting your own face. Evidently, the House Of Representatives and their constituents don't really care about a recession as long as they get some sort of pathetic revenge on the 'evil' fat cats that rule on Wall Street. The criticisms range as thus:
1. Why should fat cats get all this money when they're the ones that fucked it up in the first place?
Hello! You must be Mr Can't-See-The-Wood-For-The-Trees. OK, you dumbass homeowner, listen up. You put your money in a bank unless you're some hick from Tenessee who stores his money under the pile of lynched niggers in his garage. Am I right? Now, let's recap what the problem is. The banks made a mistake by lending you a mortgage despite the fact that your income was primarily based on selling dead possums to people in the Bible belt with scurvy from just eating roadkill. Since you didn't sell enough possums the last few months, you can't afford to pay off your mortgage so you defaulted, leaving the banks out of pocket.
This means that your pal next door who has just managed to pay off his ridiculous 125% mortgage but also has money with this bank, in the form of a deposit, is pretty scared this bank's going to go under. Yes, banks are run by fat cats but they also have your money. If they don't get this cash injection, they're not going not start lending at all which is how they make money. If they don't make money, they go under and then you lose your money. You fucking idiot. Not that I care if you lose your money. I'll just stand and laugh and then buy your house because I invested in a Chinese bank.
2. I thought we were free marketeers! What's all this bailing out companies that fail bullshit? Let 'em hang!
It is rare that you hear the left telling the right that they're being too idealistic. Although I admit it'd be hilarious from to watch people lose their homes and become unemployed (only one step away from watching a wife getting AIDS from her adulterous Christian husband who opposes condom use), the majority of the country don't agree. People like their homes. They like to live in them, bring up their kids in them, eat in them, sleep in them, try and convince their wives that anal is a good idea in them, beat their wives for not doing anal in them and so on.
I'm not saying that capitalism is evil but it's not that simple. Letting lots of people lose their homes and their jobs just because you want to stick to your beloved principle of 'small government' is a bit ridiculous. It's like a doctor not giving an antibiotic to somebody who has a fatal infection because the doesn't want to create more resistant bugs. Get off your moral pedestal and grow up, you fuck.
3. It hasn't been looked at properly. I'm a giant pussy who wants to sit back and wait
This is arguably the least ridiculous of all the ridiculous arguments I've heard. Essentially, the argument is that the plan is bad so we should wait around until a better one comes along. Basically, it's like this train analogy: you are standing at the switch where a train track forks. There's a train coming. On one of the forks there's one person tied to the track, on the other, five. You have no idea who these people are so it's natural that you flick the which so the train goes down the track with one person tied to it.
The 'sit back and wait' approach is saying, "let's wait until somebody builds a third track". There's no other option, there's no other plan and there's nobody who's going to come along and build a magic third track. Later, there should be repurcussions for those who tied the people to the tracks in the first place (which is the bankers in my now-overstretched analogy) but that doesn't mean you should try an avoid a total disaster by opting for a minor one.
They've changed it cosmetically now so that you idealistic dumbasses and the populist pussies you elected to the House Of Representatives might actually have the balls to fucking vote for it. So stop your whining and your acting like a deer in the headlights. Pass the bill and let's move on.