On the “Today” show this morning, Jim Cramer (“Mad Money”) told Ann Curry he believes the proposed bailout is a good deal for taxpayers and that he wishes there was a way he could invest directly with his own money because of the potential upside return and the safeguards in place for protection.
This makes me wonder…why can’t he? Why are you and I going to be forced to contribute to this plan involuntarily when there are Jim Cramers out there who would be willing to fund it?
There are only two reasons I can think of. The first is ignorance. Perhaps Washington thinks $700 billion can only be raised by the federal government. It certainly sounds like a gargantuan sum. Let’s put it in context though. In simplest terms it works out to a little more than $2,000 per citizen. That’s more than I think we can ask of the average Joe. But fortunately Forbes just released their annual report on the 400 richest people in America. The combined wealth of this 0.00013% of our population is $1.57 trillion – more than twice the amount of the bailout. Now I am not asking them to shoulder the cost alone, but merely illustrating that they could. We have not even talked about the 5% of Americans making more than $250,000 per year, according to Senator Obama. Five percent by the way is roughly 15 million people. The cost of this bailout divided evenly among them would be just under $50,000. You’re probably sick of my math and we’ve only discussed private citizens so far. I won’t get into the dollars available in the corporate world. Hopefully we can agree that if Congress wanted to fund this bailout privately they could.
This leaves the other reason: corruption. If Washington can keep spending your money however it wants it maintains control over you. Politicians get to keep their power. If they fund this bailout privately they have to admit that the free market works. They will have a hard time justifying their bloated salaries and repeated attempts to pass more legislation when the Congressional Record is already far longer than anyone can read.
Anyway I got slightly off topic. My point is this: most of us are too far removed or don’t have enough of the facts available to really have a good opinion of what needs to be done (or not, as the case may be.) We will have to hope that through all of the arguing and butting heads between the idiots we are overpaying to look out for us that the truth will come out. And if the bailout is necessary we should go to our Congressmen and Senators and demand that they recover at least a significant portion of our money by issuing securities to the private sector. Let’s make the option available. I for one am more than happy to let Jim Cramer shoulder “my” portion of the payout.
----------------
Now playing: Genesis - It's Gonna Get Better
via FoxyTunes
This makes me wonder…why can’t he? Why are you and I going to be forced to contribute to this plan involuntarily when there are Jim Cramers out there who would be willing to fund it?
There are only two reasons I can think of. The first is ignorance. Perhaps Washington thinks $700 billion can only be raised by the federal government. It certainly sounds like a gargantuan sum. Let’s put it in context though. In simplest terms it works out to a little more than $2,000 per citizen. That’s more than I think we can ask of the average Joe. But fortunately Forbes just released their annual report on the 400 richest people in America. The combined wealth of this 0.00013% of our population is $1.57 trillion – more than twice the amount of the bailout. Now I am not asking them to shoulder the cost alone, but merely illustrating that they could. We have not even talked about the 5% of Americans making more than $250,000 per year, according to Senator Obama. Five percent by the way is roughly 15 million people. The cost of this bailout divided evenly among them would be just under $50,000. You’re probably sick of my math and we’ve only discussed private citizens so far. I won’t get into the dollars available in the corporate world. Hopefully we can agree that if Congress wanted to fund this bailout privately they could.
This leaves the other reason: corruption. If Washington can keep spending your money however it wants it maintains control over you. Politicians get to keep their power. If they fund this bailout privately they have to admit that the free market works. They will have a hard time justifying their bloated salaries and repeated attempts to pass more legislation when the Congressional Record is already far longer than anyone can read.
Anyway I got slightly off topic. My point is this: most of us are too far removed or don’t have enough of the facts available to really have a good opinion of what needs to be done (or not, as the case may be.) We will have to hope that through all of the arguing and butting heads between the idiots we are overpaying to look out for us that the truth will come out. And if the bailout is necessary we should go to our Congressmen and Senators and demand that they recover at least a significant portion of our money by issuing securities to the private sector. Let’s make the option available. I for one am more than happy to let Jim Cramer shoulder “my” portion of the payout.
----------------
Now playing: Genesis - It's Gonna Get Better
via FoxyTunes
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment