Aren’t you Outrageous because of the BailOut

By: Corney Vanhelden

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By
Corney Vanhelden

It is a known fact that the economy is badly affected and that banks are struggling to survive.

And we all know that the government has decided to come to the rescue of those banks by offering financial bail outs.

We were all thinking that our hard earned money that we have contributed in the form of taxes and other charges is being rightly used by the government to help them survive.

We have almost convinced ourselves that we were indirectly contributing towards the strengthening of our economy.

Wake up, fellow Americans!

You are being taken for a big ride, bigger than the biggest ride you had experienced at Disneyland!

Do you know where all your money is going?

All those billions of dollars that have been announced by the government as financial aids to those “unable-to-survive” firms are being used by those firms for – DO YOU BELIEVE IT – paying out BONUSES to their top brass as a first!

Hey, I know, you are outraged!

Who wouldn’t be?

You go out on the street, see someone who hadn’t had food for days, very week, and out of your sympathy for him, you shell out a $20 bill.
What does the dude do?
He goes out and gets a beer for himself – wouldn’t you be outraged at that?

You lend about $1000 to your dear neighbor who pours out all his financial difficulties on you, only to see him go to the car dealer next day to buy a cute looking Porsche – wouldn’t you be outraged?

Now, the issue at hand is much, much bigger!

All of us poor guys have been so kind enough to agree to the government offering on a platter the mind-boggling amount of $700 billion to resuscitate those financially weak firms and help them come out of the ditch they are in.

And all those monies are being distributed to the top brass of those firms in the form of incentives and bonuses!

I didn’t know this is what they meant by ‘redistribution.’

I am told that the firms are trying to justify saying that the amount being given out as bonuses is not the same amount they received from the government.

Thanks, for clarifying, pothead, but my question is: what’s the difference?

If you really had money in the first instance to announce those hefty bonuses, why did you need a bail out at all?

Yet some CEOs and VPs have even gone to the extent of saying that these fat bonuses had to be announced to retain the ‘qualified and professional’ lot.

Somebody, please help me understand: If they are so well qualified and so highly professional, how come they couldn’t do anything to stop the company from getting into the pathetic state of ‘not-able-to-survive?”

Do we even know the names of the firms which actually got to enjoy all our hard-earned money?

Where is that entire $2 trillion non-TARP loan amount going?

Did anyone bother to ask for a collateral before happily bending backwards and offering the ‘emergency loans’ made to the ‘struggling’ firms?

The change to the tax code was issued on September 30, while Congress is now debating the $700 billion TARP bill – makes sense for anyone?
It doesn’t, for me!

To be frank, do I care if all those firms that can’t survive collapse?

What good is it going to do me, if they continue to survive?

Aren’t there people amongst us who have lost our employment because some ‘fit-for-nothing’ cheat at the top didn’t bother to apply his mind and pull up the company from getting into doldrums?

Now, why do I have to pay out my hard work so that he gets his bonus?

There are a lot of people who have been suffering in broken-down and shabby apartments because they couldn’t afford their own houses.
If the current bail-outs go through, then banks and financial institutions would be back to normal again, and there will be cooked-up / artificial hike in housing prices, which means that all of us can happily forget about even dreaming of a house!
Why don’t we simply ask the all the unable-to-survive firms to be written-down, and then re-liquefy the banks through equity stake by the government in the surviving institutions?

So, do the US taxpayers want the executive bonuses decreased?

You got them wrong – they want the bonuses to be eliminated!!

Look at what gall these executives have, when they express their dissatisfaction saying that lesser bonuses are a disappointment – how can they even think of a bonus, when survival itself is a doubtful issue?

What is the government asking in return from the firms to which the bail outs are being offered?

Why don’t we ask their executives to take a pay cut – forget this year’s bonus completely and probably, ask them to pay back a part of the bonus they received last year as well?

It is quite a painful humiliation and embarrassment to think that on one hand a portion of the population is bleeding to death, unable to pay up for the basic needs, while the other portion is thinking of a bonus or a hefty pay package!

If bailouts are going to fund, among other purposes, the executive bonuses and pay hikes, I would rather suggest that the taxpayers not contribute at all to the exchequer; the amount can as well be used to finance the home loans and reduced interest rate implementation.

If a risk management company cannot manage their own business risk, then what are we talking here?
Hasn’t the company been taking all of us for a jolly ride all through these years?

Most of all, how are we going to decide who gets a pie out of this bail out fund of $700 billion dollars and how are we going to recover the amount in the future?

This complete lack of transparency and specific plan of implementation is adding fuel to the fire, and it is natural for people like me to be outraged – isn’t there a stronger word we could use to express the distress and the fire in our bellies?

Corney Vanhelden is a successful entrepreneur and international businessman with many years of experience.
This article is has all to do with his new book `How to Survive without Taxes`, see his site for www.Done-with-IRS.com specifics.