When “Too Big To Fail” Becomes “Too Big For A Lot Of Other Things”
Anyone who knows me knows I hate the Wall Street bailouts. I call them the non-violent crime of the century. I think the concept of “Too Big To Fail”, or TBTF as its now commonly abbreviated, is perhaps the greatest oxymoron of our times. Obviously there are plenty who disagree but quite frankly I think their viewpoints have lost all credibility. You see when you take the taxes paid by millions of hard working people and hand that money over to billionaires so they can use it to pay themselves more billions after they’ve sabotaged the economy for everyone else, well I’m afraid you lose me forever with that one. Might as well argue to free Bernie Madoff as far as I’m concerned, at least his theft wasn’t government funded.
And its not a political thing either, when it comes to the bailouts and the something for nothing manner in which they’ve been doled out there’s plenty of blame to go around among both elephants and donkeys. Bush and Paulson started them, Obama and Geithner greatly escalated them. Maybe that’s why few people outside of us Registered Independents seem to be truly incensed about the bailouts. I guess we tend to live in a world that dictates an argument that doesn’t begin with blaming the other party is an argument not worth arguing about.
But this political complacency and the corresponding preferential treatment Wall Street has received from our federal government took a bizarre and deeply concerning turn last week when reports filtered through the news that Wall Street bailout recipients Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup had received doses of the H1N1 Vaccine in quantities greater than and on delivery schedules well before those of public hospitals and doctor’s offices. So in addition to getting their seven and eight figure bonuses financed by our taxes, these bankers and traders who created the economic mess that manifested itself in ten-plus percent unemployment last week are also getting the Swine Flu Vaccine before our kids.
So now TBTF has also become TBTGS or as I like to call it TBTWILFTV. Those of course would stand for Too Big To Get Sick and Too Big To Wait In Line For The Vaccine.
Given this currently absurd predicament what could be next? Special commuter lanes on our highways for Wall Street employees designated TBTHTSIT – Too Big To Have To Sit In Traffic?
For those Wall Streeters with grade school children might we also soon see TBTHTWOLFHMT? Too Big To Have To Wait On Line For Hannah Montana Tickets.
All of this sound crazy? I assure you it sounds no crazier than the notion a year ago that Wall Street, after all it had done to cripple our financial system and national economy, would have its highest bonuses in history subsidized by the federal government and then be designated a first response status regarding vaccines for the most widespread virus of a generation even before such medicines were made available to local hospitals. I wonder what sort of a reaction you would have gotten by floating that one at an Obama victory rally last year.
There are some out there calling conspiracy about all this, you know the Goldman Sachs is secretly running the country type of thing, though I’m not quite prepared to go that far just yet. Personally speaking I think what we’re seeing is simply a perfect storm of convergence between corporate greed and government incompetence. I’ll wait to see if the Yankees repeat next year before calling this a conspiracy.
However in the time being I’m keeping my tax receipts close and any Miley Cyrus tickets I might be able to get for my kids a lot closer.
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Those you have the money make the rules. No one, in the history of humanity, has ever had power but no money…
.-= Michael Kindt´s last blog ..Waning Beneath The Night Sky Glare =-.
Old saying, “Those who have the power and the money, make the rules”, nothings changed, nothing will.