Sweet Jeebus. I've been lectured enough today.

[FlyingSquirrel]

The scolding I've received for not supporting the friggin' bailout plan. Regardless of the fact that I am but one of MILLIONS who gave their representatives an earful. The one that grated especially was the person who posted something to the effect that we just caused a 7% drop in the stock market, thereby hurting all of our 401k's etc.

THE STOCK MARKET GOES UP. THE STOCK MARKET GOES DOWN.

THE STOCK MARKET IS NOT THE END-ALL BE-ALL MOST IMPORTANT THING IN AMERICA.

We should pass a bailout bill to make sure the stocks don't fall? SCREW THAT. We should pass something if it's fundamentally in the interests of EVERYONE in this country, mainly the little guy. FUCK THE INVESTORS. If we take care of the basic problems that underlie the current instability, THAT will eventually make the stocks go up again. In time. Nobody's gonna spend their entire retirement in one day.

[Speck Tater]

1. We need to bail out patrons of the country's many casinos too.

A lot of these folks have lost money at the craps table that they could not afford to lose. People are now unable to pay their rent because of their gambling loses.

News flash, whatever else it is, Wall Street is one great huge gambling casino driven by the desire to get something for nothing. Place your bets and hope to roll a winning number. When you're on a winning streak it beats working all to hell! But when you're on a losing streak don't knock on my door expecting me to fork over a chunk of my pay check to cover your gambling loses. Nobody dragged you kicking and screaming into the casino. If you are into Wall Street, one way or another, directly or indirectly, it's because you wanted something for nothing. You wanted to put $100 into your retirement fund and eventually get back $200 in exchange for doing nothing whatsoever. People are in Wall Street because they honestly believe they are entitled to something for nothing.

The population of the Earth is now in overshoot. What a person is entitled to is their fair share of the Earth's resources. And that fair share does not include money for nothing and your chicks for free. Or your MTV. For most people on the planet, it amounts to whatever food they can scratch out of the earth with their own two hands. If resources were distributed fairly, the people of the U.S. would be right out there in the field scratching in the dirt and planting seeds just like the rest of the world's teeming masses.

I heard someone say "Oh no! My daughter needs orthodontia and I can't afford it." Anyone who still thinks of orthodontia as a "necessity of life" has drifted so far out of touch with reality that it's beyond comprehension. Even the poorest U.S. citizens gets way more than their fair share of the global pie. The playing field is about to be leveled, and fairness is about to return to the world. Get used to it. The U.S. standard of living is going down, down, down. Down to where it really belongs on the global karmic scale of things.

[Hannah Bell]

15. not unless you think "fairness" = one big global plantation run by an overseer class.

[soulcore]

2. Here, here!

I've been defending myself all day, you would think after all of Bush's lies and the fear mongering after 9/11 that people would notice when they are being fleeced.

[scheming daemons]

3. Frankly... I don't give a damn about the market... the credit freeze is more damaging....

You're right... the market will rise and fall.


But the market drop is just a symptom.


The credit freeze is potentially MUCH more damaging. Think 15% unemployment in 6 months.

[scheming daemons]

4. PS. If you think this is about the stock market, you weren't lectured ENOUGH today...

..or by the right people.


"The basic problems that underlie the current instability" are the credit freeze.

If we don't fix that... the stock market won't mean shit.

[TexasObserver]

5. Indeed, and the lecturers couldn't balance a checkbook.

Muchless offer economic advice.

It's not the job of government to insure the stock market and real estate paper profits of investors, even it that investor is GRANDMA.

[anigbrowl]

6. It's not the stock market we are trying to preserve.

It's the commercial paper market. Learn about it.

[scheming daemons]

9. Bingo.

[magellan]

11. At what price?

Being asked to approve this bailout is the same as being asked to give up a little freedom for security. And we know what that mindset has done for this country.

[DCKit]

7. Better a 25% loss in the value of the market than 50% inflation.

That $700 billion is just the down payment and the beginning of a long slog toward bringing the dollar to a 1-1 ratio with the peso or the yen.

The basis of Reaganonomics is erasing debt through inflation and we've already lost 30% of the value of the dollar compared to other currencies - far more in respect to the value of oil, gold, and other hedges.

[BrklynLiberal]

8. It would be penny-wise and pound foolish to have passed the bill as it is.

If there are not vast changes, or even better a whole new Democratic version of the bill, I believe that we will all live to regret it.

[scheming daemons]

10. There WERE vast changes..... the final bill was VERY different than Paulson's plan

[Robbien]

12. It is not good that you are already fed up. The lecturing campaign is only getting started

Wall Streeters are prepared to step up their campaign. They are convinced the reason anyone is against the bailout is because they are stupid. Stupid, stupid, stupid. So they must be lectured.

We must give our dollars to the banks so that they can loan it back to us. We must do this! Don't you see.

[tama]

13. Politics of fear.

Why I'm not frightened?

I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.

[pnwmom]

14. It's not the stock market. It's credit liquidity that is facing a crisis. n/t

[Robbien]

16. The problem is not more cash. Banks are afraid to lend money

The problem is fear. Banks don't trust each other any more and won't lend.

Giving them our cash to lend out to others doesn't take away that fear. They are sitting on their own cash. Giving them more cash doesn't necessarily mean all of a sudden they are going to start loaning it out.

Corruption is coming home to roost and just handing over our money to them will not change anything.

[pnwmom]

17. No one's suggesting that we give banks more cash. n/t

[pipi_k]

18. No lectures from me...

McCain claims it's not a "bailout" (from an interview I saw on CNN this morning). He wants to call it a "rescue".

Almost right after that, Donald Trump was on the phone. He supports McCain. He called it a "bailout".


Yesterday I saw a bunch of talking heads (stupidly) discussing how "nobody could see this coming".

Had they been in front of me, I think I might have punched each of them in the face.

WHAT???????

Nobody saw this coming???????????????????

Lots of people saw it coming. I figured in 2000 that something like this might happen, for crissakes!!!!

Lots of people saw it coming and were lectured, verbally abused, laughed at, etc.

And now the idiots who IGNORED the signs want to be saved from their own greed?

fuck 'em.

PS...and any Corporate CEOs who are willing to accept benefits packages of more than an average worker would get should be executed....not jailed....executed.

fuck 'em again

:mad: