We *All*
Need A Bailout. But...
Most of this commentator’s life has been one where my gains and victories
were negated or watered down by what I refer to as the conditional ‘But’.
As in, “Congrats on winning that contest... but you were the only one that
entered.” Or, “You got the job... but there
were no other applicants and nobody else wanted it.” Or, “You won the game... but it was an easy
game to win.” Or, “You’re right... but
that’s just common knowledge.”
The conditional “But” has destroyed any sense of achievement or
accomplishment in what passes for my life.
And it only seems to apply to my gains and victories, never to my defeats
or failures. Those are always absolute.
Well it is high time we apply that conditional “But” to something else.
At the time of this article’s posting, we are in the start of Narcissist President
Donald Trump’s Recession, sparked by the devastation caused by the coronavirus
global pandemic. Whole nations have
forced themselves to lockdown, shutting down stores, businesses, daily
operations. In America, states are
forcing themselves into lockdown, also shutting down stores, businesses, whole
industries. Hoarding of supplies by
self-centered opportunists have led the rest of America to panic over where our
own home essentials will come from.
The financial crack house known as Wall Street is collapsing. Businesses are laying people off out of
necessity. People aren’t
travelling. They can’t go to restaurants
to enjoy a sit-down meal. Concerts and
conventions, even political rallies – the narcissist’s favorite activity – are shut
down. Schools are closing. Graduation ceremonies have been cancelled. Gas prices may be going down, but how many
people can truly get gas for their vehicles when they’re out of work and forced
to stay home?
All around the world, we are seeing some twisted and bizarre distancing
that resembles player-created characters in an MMORPG that can interact, but
only from a distance. Intimacy,
interaction, human contact, is dead at least for the time being, and maybe even
for a long time if we treat this as “the new normal”, which it should never
be. That interaction, though, has also
been key in our business dealings.
So, yeah. We got a Narcissist
Trump Recession. That is a given. Maybe even a Narcissist Trump Depression. Maybe even a Narcissist Trump Collapse. He seems to make
it worse every time he opens his mouth in front of cameras, because, every
time he does, the financial crack house called Wall Street drops even further. Well, he is the one that claims to do things
bigger and better than ever before.
Now the talk is what to do about it.
We need a bailout. Everyone is
screaming about needing one. Airlines,
automakers, small businesses, Big Corporate, Big Hospital, Big Insurance, Big
Pharma, Big Banks, Wall Street, and, of course, human beings... the ones that are
really supposed to matter.
We all want a bailout. We all “need”
a bailout. Every one of us.
But...
But do we all really need a bailout?
You know who will get bailed out first.
Big Business. Big Corporate. Big Banks.
Big Insurance. Big Healthcare. Big Pharma.
Big Farming. Big Airlines. All of Narcissist Trump’s buddies.
And if the last bailout twelve years ago is any indication, they’ll get those
bailouts – without condition – and will turn around and engage in stock
buybacks and declare the bailout as profit and then screw over their own
customers just for sadistic pleasure and further profit margins. And then they will lecture the rest of us
about fiscal responsibility and saving for rainy days and the rest of us should
just tighten our already-tightened belts and reach for those bootstraps that no
longer exist. Then, after that, they
will pay their Trump Party friends (formerly
known as the GOP) for their generosity and to continue to disable
and dismantle whatever safety net exists.
This is what they’ve been doing with every bailout they get. They get that money and then continue to act recklessly
and wantonly to maximize their profits at the expense of everyone and everything
else.
These entities don’t need bailouts.
Certainly not the unconditional bailouts that they’ve been getting all
this time. They need to be held to the standards
they demand on the rest of us. Some of those executives may even need prison,
but, given the malignant and malicious leadership in place today, you know they’ll
never get that either. Cripes, some of
those criminal executives may even get the Medal of Freedom from the Narcissist
when this is done.
Do you know who really needs a bailout first and foremost? People!
Human beings! Hard working taxpayers
who have been systematically screwed over by the Trump Party (formerly the GOP) and all of those “Big”
entities for decades. You cannot have a
business if you do not have consumers, and that is what human beings are. We are the consumers! We are the ones that keep the economy
going. Not Big Corporate. Not Big Banks. Not the crack house that is Wall Street. Moms and Pops and Grandmas and Grandpas and
the grown-up kids and grandkids. We are
the ones that buy the merchandise in the stores. We’re the ones that take the trips and go on vacation
and buy those homes and cars. How can we
buy those things if we have no money?
Here’s the problem... if you give people a one-time check, or even a
two-time check, they’re not going to run out and buy that big-screen TV that
you want them spending it on. They’re
not going to put that money down to buy a new car or a new home. Certainly not at the amounts that are being
hashed about in Washington. The real
people are going to put that money aside to help pay for those bills that they
have been struggling to keep up. You know...
those bills from Big Banks and Big Corporate and Big Pharma and Big Hospital that
are still due even though those entities are also getting bailed out first. So not only are those entities getting bailed
out, but then they’re getting *our* pittance of a bailout as well! Talk about double-dipping!
If that wasn’t bad enough, we need to seriously ask where those one-time
or two-time checks to the taxpayers are going to come from, because if they
were anything like the last time almost 20 years ago, then they are not going
to come from the same slush funds that will be used to bail out the “Big”
entities. When President George W. Bush
gave out “stimulus” checks to the American people, they came from advances on
our next tax refunds. So if you took the
$300, that amount was then removed from your next tax refund.
So... show of hands... how many of you hard-working Americans expect to
get $1200 or $2400 from this year’s tax refund?
How many of you think you’ll get that next year?
If those “checks” come from the same place as the ones from Bush Junior, then
you will see millions of Americans get hit with a sizeable tax bill next year
instead of a refund. And you will have
nobody to thank for that but Narcissist President Donald John Trump and his
Trump Party schemers, including “Moscow Mitch” McConnell in the Trump Party
Senate, with a portion of blame to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her fail
machine for allowing it in the name of “expediency”.
Let’s get brutally honest here... if Narcissist President Trump was in
any way a competent and responsible leader sincerely interest in real change, instead
of a vain and pompous self-serving demagogue who flakes
out and attacks people at the simplest of snowball questions, then he’d be
pushing to help out people first instead of the “Big” entities.
If one were truly interested in helping out real people instead of “Big”
entities to minimize or recover from this upcoming financial collapse, then
this is what would need to happen...
First, as much as the “fiscal conservative” people would hate it with venomous
revulsion, we would need to spend some serious money on the American people and
also keep programs like Medicaid and Medicare and Social Security and SNAP
going. This needs to be first and
foremost. People need to spend money for
businesses to keep going. Put the horse
in front of the cart for once.
Second, if any of the “Big” entities expect to get any bailout money,
then they also need to put a freeze on any debts they have on the American
people. Yes, car loans and mortgages and
student loans and hospital debt and credit card debt need to be frozen for at
least one year if those “Big” entities are expected to get bailout money. They can be either forgiven for that period
or they can be just held in place, but if you expect people to spend money on
the economy, they cannot do that if you’re demanding them to pay those debts
first.
Third, stock buybacks need to end.
Period. That is what was used to
screw over the American people instead of investing in jobs twelve years ago. All stock buybacks do is limit available
stocks, which make their value rise even higher for those who don’t give them
up, and also increase the profit margins of the company in question.
Fourth, this needs to be an opportunity to set aside the idea that
profits should be the end-all-be-all for business at all costs. That kind of thinking has been creating the
situations that have led to bailouts for decades now. Any kind of credible leader should be pushing
to help Main Street, not Wall Street, and to help our street, not K-Street or C-Street.
I know these are pie-in-the-sky ideas, even if they are practical and
would work to help out the economy. The
people in Washington today would not consider these ideas because they are so
in bed with the “Big” entities and with K-Street and C-Street and their “Prosperity
Gospel” fanaticism. They are the ones that
would give out the financial lifeboats only to their friends and tell the rest
of us on the economic Titanic to just rotate the deck chairs.
But these ideas do need to be said... just in case there is a competent
leader somewhere in the Internets.
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