Bailout B.S.!

Recently the entire country has been shocked to learn that our financial industry is in a crisis. Apparently the government has decided that it needs to bail them out of this situation. $700 Billion worth of a bailout!
Now as an aspiring accountant, I have huge problems with this plan. Firstly, as a tax paying citizen of this country, I do not think that spending this much taxpayer money to rescue irresponsible business is ethical. Ask yourself this, if you go out and overspend then find your bank account overdrawn, do you think for one second that Uncle Sam is going to come to your rescue?! Heck no! The government has never been there for its citizens in that capacity. If you mismanage your funds, you should suffer the consequences.
The media and our elected legislature wants us to believe that if they do not pass this bailout then there will be a world wide financial crisis. But why? I have yet to hear a single satisfactory answer to this question. Why would WaMu going under threaten the global economy? It doesn't. What it does threaten is my poor grandmother who was unfortunate enough to have a high yielding savings account with them. And the only tangible result to be seen from WaMu's demise is that now my grandma's accounts are owned by J.P. Morgan and Chase. So what?~
I know that WaMu isn't the only financial institution to be affected by the mortgage catastrophy, but seriously, isn't it the bank's fault to a large extent for giving less than truely qualified people these huge home mortgages? Since when should the average taxpayer have to suffer because someone down the road wanted to keep up with the Jones' and buy an extravagently expensive home? And furthermore why did an entire subsection of the economy, the housing market, allow itself to undergo an astronomical value increase for no reason? Just because some real estate agents got greedy and some speculators had the cash to throw around, I do not understand how this is now my problem as a taxpayer.
And lastly I ask myself who were these auditing firms that did such a poor job of informing the public of an impending financial melt down. One of the basic principles of accounting is called "the going concern". Not to give you all a lecture, but the jist of this tenent says that if an auditor does not believe that the company its auditing will continue to be functioning, if the going concern is not met, then there is a duty and responsiblity to disclose this information. I don't think anyone had any idea that the financial market in our country was so close to such a huge disaster like this. Not a single auditing report has trickled into the media which would have validated that these auditors honored the going concern with regard to these company's precarious financial positions. WHY IS THIS? Why are the auditing firms not being asked to repay the $700 billion? Isn't it largely their fault that the American public invested in bad companies? I say it is. And what about these huge CEO/CFO/COO bonuses which were given out like free peppermints on a pillow? Why doesn't the government make those A'holes pay back the money and salvage the economy by throwing those guys under the bus that they set into motion? Or how about getting the bailout money from the top 2% of Americans who could actually afford it?
The majority of our elected officials have gone to college. And as you all know, economics is a required course for all business majors. Now granted not every politican was a business major, but seriously, have they never heard of the basics of economics? Why would they ever think that allowing our government to buy out bad debts from financial institutions would help? Its absurd and illogical. And furthermore, it pisses me off. I am not a bleeding heart liberal nor am I a Bible thumping conservative, but honestly, I do not care if WaMu and its counterparts go out of business. Yes, it is sad for the unwitting employees who were simply doing their jobs, but the top executives had an obligation to prevent these types of disasters. They spent their companies funds irresponsibly and now the American public is supposed to sacrifice its wellbeing for theirs?!
So I will end by asking anyone who reads this blog to email your congressman, senator or any other elected offical. Let them know that you DO NOT WANT TO BAIL BIG BUSINESS OUT!
I'm not optimistic enough to think it will actually work, since the Senate passed the bailout bill earlier this week, but at least we, the taxpayers, can know that we tried to get our voices heard. Too bad we're just ordinary people and not lobbist groups or special interest affiliates or CEOs because it seems Washington only has ears for those with deep pockets. This is not democracy~

As always, thanks for reading and stay well.

The Cajun Haole