Unless you live in a cabin in Montana and are self sufficient

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Thu Sep-25-08 04:14 PM
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Unless you live in a cabin in Montana and are self sufficient

(and, by the way, on whose land is your cabin?) you should be worried about the "meltdown" and welcome the bailout, er, the rescue plan.

Even if you live by cash only - no checking account and, of course, no credit cards - the people who pay you in cash do use credit.

And if you live in that cabin, how do you access the Internet? From the public library? And from where, do you think, this library gets its funding?

Even if we do not use credit, our employers, our customers and suppliers, government all use credit. And this is what happened in the past few days: banks stopped making loans.

Early in the year we debated the merit of helping homeowners who should have never purchased their homes. No, we do not want to reward irresponsibility, but the reality was that blocks after blocks in the inner city - not just in the suburbs - being boarded is bad for the community. Only last weekend one such building exploded when thieves cut the copper gas pipes. And, of course, they are perfect place for drug and meth labs.

When banks fail, when they do not make loans it affects our employers and our jobs. It affects any pension or retirements funds that we have. This means that more of us will be dependent on welfare. If we don't have jobs, most of us cannot afford to purchase health insurance on our own so this is more of a burden on society. It affects insurance companies, too. They have had rough time this past year but if the stock market crashes, their ability to pay whatever they do pay will be eliminated.

Yes, we want health care for all supported by our tax money. Except, with no jobs and business failing, from where, do you think, will the funds to provide health care for all, good schools, not to mention safe drinking water, roads and bridges will come? Or that library that you, who do not use credit, use to post on DU that you "don't support the bailout?"

The reality is that we are all in it together. We write checks and use credit cards - to support Obama and DU, among others - and when banks do not loan money the whole economy stands still.

Yes, many here would love to see the collapse of the capitalistic system except that this is the ones that fits best with human nature of "looking out for number one." This is why our parents and grand parents and great great grandparents came here and why so many continue to do so. (Yes, I recognize that many ancestors did not come here on their own free will). Because they came from a class system where no matter how smart they were or hard they worked, they could have never moved "Upstairs." And, of course, we all know that lazy co-worker who gets away with doing the minimum and yet his job, his salary, his benefits are secure. Do we really want to have the whole country operating like that? The best we can do is regulate and modify the capitalistic system so that a few greedy individuals cannot break the system while they jump with their golden parachutes.

And this is what Obama and both Clintons have been saying: that, yes, we need to come with a rescue plan however we need to include homeowners who lost, or are in the process of losing their homes, that we, the taxpayers have to be treated like shareholders benefiting from future profits and that the CEOs should not continue with their obscene salaries and bonuses. See Hilalry's WSJ op-ed here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x387610

I suppose some here like to cut their noses to spite their faces. They would like to see the collapse of the economy and being thrown out in the streets. After all, many did so when they voted for Nader in 2000. But for most of us, who are capable of rational thinking, we should welcome this agreement.

And as for, as some posted here - "most Americans" are against it, are these the same who are enchanted with Palin, who think that Obama will raise their taxes and that he is Muslim? How many posts to we have here about "dumb" voters who are incapable of listening and reading and finding the truth? So, all of a sudden, they are the smart one?

The fact that the Republicans, including McCain, were against that plan should tell us something. After all, they are the ones who think that we should "sink or swim," that we should "pull ourselves by our bootstraps" - assuming, as Al Franken says, that we have boots. They are the ones who show no compassion for the sick, the poor, and the elderly, the ones who lost their jobs or their businesses. This must be their faults, they think. At least, this is what Republicans often say on message boards.

So let's accept the plan that is being passed, and let's claim it as our own, with pride. And thank our representatives.