If you want our money here’s your option…

The prospect of failure is a great motivator for business investment. It causes investors to consider their investments wisely. You want to put your money in places where it can grow with the least chance of failure. Risk is what you need to take to be successful; the greater the risk; the greater the rewards in a capitalist system.

This current crisis is the result of many years of people and companies taking risks, and reaping the rewards. Many people have accumulated capital through the appreciation in their homes. Some even used this new found wealth to borrow more money to buy more homes and “flip” them for a profit. Each sale increased their wealth if they could sell the property quick enough. Much personal wealth was created through lending practices that disregarded income verification, down payment ability, or credit history. It was a good time to be one of these people.

We also had companies willing to give credit to marginally credit worthy customers, in the billions of dollars, to invest in property that at the time was appreciating at what we all knew were unsustainable rates. These people were borrowing off of their homes equity and buying campers, second homes, and vacations with this new found wealth. These companies knew this, and were even encouraged by congress to continue this extremely risky business practice. God bless capitalism!

So now we are being asked to absorb all of the losses that this risky activity created when the market dried up and these companies, and individuals were left holding the bag. The federal government (we the taxpayer) is now saying that all of these “bad” loans need to wiped off the books as if they had never happened. What about all of the money that was made? We are being told that if these companies go “under” it will ruin the economy. I disagree; if we allow these companies to continue, the future of capitalism as we know it is over. You cannot allow capitalism to win but not lose. You can’t take away risk and allow for reward. You must allow the system to correct itself because the government can’t correct it. It is fundamentally impossible. Someone has to lose here and it shouldn’t be the taxpayer. It needs to be the people and companies that participated in this activity.

We will see a rush of companies getting rid of marginal debt now that they have been given the opportunity to do so. I ask you as a taxpayer; what do you think will happen if we are expected to “buy” the bad debt and pay for it later? Companies will do the same thing again. The stock market’s rise today is because these financial “wizards” on Wall Street know that they can start lending with no risk, and the consumers of that money know they can use it again with no negative consequences.

We need to see a lot of people going to jail here. If we are going to bail out these companies we need to ask first; as an executive of this company you will be stripped of every penny of your personal wealth, do you still want our money? Here are the options for anyone asking for our help: Ask for the taxpayer’s money and you give up every asset you have in your portfolio.

We also need congress to be punished by voting out every one of them. If Congress wants to bail these companies out here is their option; if you give away our money and you received a contribution from a company or individual we are being asked to bail out - you will be prosecuted for bribery. I think that’s fair. What about you?

This is insanity! Too big to fail? Where does it end?