Free Markets, Not Free Money . . . The Slippery Slope of Bail-Outs
The purest definition of capitalism is an economic system that presents the same opportunity to succeed or fail to all entities without hindrance or support from the government. Arguably, our nation has never been further from this ideal than we are at start of 2009. In fact, with the current administration of the United Socialists States of America taking ownership of more than $5 TRILLION worth of mortgages (of which, more than $1 trillion are sub-prime loans) by nationalizing home lending behemoths Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, it is evident that we have crossed into the Rubicon of fascism.
In addition to the obscene amount of debt placed on the federal government’s books by this massive mortgage bail-out, the Bush-backed Bolsheviks are not done yet! The American government (which is actually you, me, and all other tax paying individuals) now has partial ownership in the nine largest banks in our country. They (or “we”) also committed more than $200 billion to guarantee Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debts, put up $85 billion to nationalize insurance giant AIG, and extended hundreds of billions of dollars through banks to make short term loans to certain institutions.
However, the most egregious transgression that this administration has committed is the fact that, through all of their fascist activities in the final half of 2008, they have absolutely no argument for not providing the inability of failure to all commercial entities.
In a December 19, 2008 article titled “As More Companies Seek Aid, ‘Where Do You Stop?’”, CNBC.com put forth that the US government could be entering a “bottomless pit of bail-outs if it starts propping up failing companies outside of the financial sector’. This article, published prior to the bail-out of the Big Three automakers, went on to state that “many economist are against the idea of a bailout for the auto companies, saying that propping up Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler will open the door to a taxpayer rescue of virtually any major company with cash problems”.
It is this premise that flies in the face of laissez-faire capitalism, and moves directly into the realm of fascism.
A well-crafted article posted to ThisCantBeHappening.net brings to the forefront that as the government of China rapidly extricates itself from ownership of commercial companies, the current US administration is spiraling into statism, corruption, and stagnation. The following excerpt from this article titled “America and China Joined at the Hip” summarizes our country’s slippery slope into a government controlled economy:
The essential point of commonality is that big enterprises—especially banking enterprises—are being allowed to operate as fail-proof yet operationally opaque adjuncts of the state. Their business decisions—whom to lend to, what risks to take, etc.—are made with the goal of enriching the key managers and shareholders, and probably also key government officials and bureaucrats—with no thought to the impact on the larger economy or the larger population of the respective countries.
The purpose of our EngineWorks.org site is to promote the supremacy of free markets, and therefore, it is important to offer alternatives that would have been better than the fascist actions of our current administration over the past several months. The following market-based strategies are solutions our Founding Fathers would have endorsed:
1. Eliminate, lower, or extend the current capital gains tax rate,
2. Eliminate, lower, or extend the current dividend tax rate,
3. Eliminate all Roth IRA contribution limits,
4. Raise the capital ratio for government sponsored investment banks.
Finally, if our government is (for some reason!) unable to get away from spending almost $1 TRILLION on a bail-out plan, then return our tax payer money in the form of a $5,000 check to each 191 million of us.