Posted by
This Guy on Wednesday, September 24, 2008 11:23:58 PM
If we're talking about bailing people out of their bad debts with taxpayer money, I have an idea. How about we bail out the taxpayers?
Rather than releasing taxpayer money back to the very companies that
helped cause the crisis, is there any hope that such money could be
redirected instead to the taxpayers themselves, many of whom have lost
retirement accounts and other safety nets in this economic turmoil? A
government program enabling taxpayers to repay debts owed, on homes,
cars, credit cards, and other acceptable forms of debt ... would that increase
liquidity in the markets as well as provide relief to those that need
it most ... taxpayers themselves? Might such a solution send consumer confidence soaring, and provide a bailout to
Americans already struggling with record gas prices and other
cost-of-living increases? Could we maybe bundle in there some real tax reform, and then run the numbers out and see if that works out better in the long run?
Of course, giving people money to pay off their debts fixes a symptom, not the cause ... most people who get money to pay off their debts aren't going to change the habits that got them into debt in the first place. But the same can be said of lenders who made poor choices. The difference is, if Mr. Johnny Maxed Out gets himself back into debt again and goes broke, it's not going to cripple the economy and affect folks who've been making good financial choices along the way.
I don't know, I'm not an economist ... I'm asking, any chance that would work? .... I guess I'm asking the one guy in S. Korea who keeps accidentally finding my blog and staying for an average of 6 seconds.