Bailout Nation
Mar 24th, 2008 at 7:39 pm by Susie
From Big Picture:
I have this image in my mind of an American cowboy: Rugged, independent, self-reliant. I picture him on a cattle drive, depending upon only his own wits, his horse, and his trusty Winchester to get by.
This vision of the American past is fast becoming a myth, rendered moot by the present day cowboys. The difference between the two — not the smell, which is surprisingly similar — is that the current cowboys have a different cavalry in their back pockets: Uncle Sam.
Indeed, as time goes on, we have become less independent, and more reliant upon the Federal GOvernment — especially the Federal Reserve — for Bailouts.
I’ve been pondering this for some time now, and the longer I think about, the longer the list grows.
Consider the following:
- Great Depression
- Chrysler (1979)
- Steel Industry (date ?)
- National Flood Insurance
- Savings and Loan Crisis (1980s)
- Long-Term Capital Management (1998)
- Farm Subsidies (run amuck)
- Airlines (post 9/11)
- Dot Com crash (2001)
- Hurricane Hugo, Andrew, Katrina, and other not-so natural disasters (1989, 1992, 2005)
- Housing (2007)
- Bear Stearns (2008)
- Sub Prime (continuing)
What other bailouts have I missed?
There must be dozens. I am particularly interested in those situations where the profits were private, but the assumption of risk is public.
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What say ye?
GWB has this same picture too…
Well I take exception to putting the Great Depression on this list. The high school I graduated from would not have been built except for the “bailout” of the Great Depresson; 70 years later they are still churning out graduates that benefit society. I sit in a home and work in an office powered by the Hoover Dam; arguably that “bailout” still has positive economic effects. Many TVA, WPA, and other Great Depression era “bailouts” are still of great benefit to society. I haven’t even gotten to the positive impact of banking regulation, the HOLC, or Social Security.
If I had time and the inclination, I could probably skewer more items on the list (I worked for a dotcom and didn’t get a government bailout, I’m lucky I got a lousy t-shirt), but government bailout for the Great Depression? Oh come on.
This sorta reminds me of the best quote from last weekend’s Bill Maher show… paraphrasing:
“Republicans believe in privatizing profit, and socializing loss.”
So True. This was, of course, in reference to the big banking, real estate, etc., bail-outs underway now.
I think the Great Depression bailout refers to the banks.
The whole argument is wrong. The 19th century cowboy hardly rode alone. WIthout government support the RR’s and telegraph would never have been built, the Native-Americans wouldn’t have been under armed guard on reservations, and law wouldn’t have been established and enforced. We need to get past this bullshit view of the 19th century of a time when men were men and the guvmint stayed away. Was the federal government smaller than today? Of course. Did it play no role in the development of the west? It played a major role.
Then email the guy and add it to his list. Certainly, the railroads pretty much owned the government in those days.