What do we get for our money?

Question

With the bailout of Bears & Stern, and the upcomming bailout of Freddie & Fannie, should we as taxpayers ask the government the make the CEO's of these co. return some of their pay for allowing these co.'s to fail.

The adveradge citizen, whose home is being forclosed is not getting bailed out.

I remember the Saving & Loans ripoff of taxpayers and say it is time we get something for our money besides the same old thing. CEO's making up to 400 times as much as the workers.

Answer 1

First of all, just because foreclosures are at all-time highs doesn't mean that the average American is having their home foreclosed. Yes, it's happening to a lot of people, but it's still a relatively low percentage of borrowers. Some people were gullible enough to get roped into a situation where they committed themselves to more debt than they could possibly afford. This could have been avoided with a little research and responsible spending.

Second, the Bush administration IS working with financial institutions to re-adjust the terms of a large portion of homeowners who are facing foreclosure, but are able to make their payments with an adjusted lending agreement. It isn't the government's responsibility to bail out any individual who is living beyond their means. If a lender is willing to give a McDonald's employee a loan for a Porsche, is it the government's duty to step in a bail him out when he can't pay?

Third, CEOs make what they make because they can. Welcome to capitalism. If you want to be a noble CEO and accept a laborer's wage, you are free to do so, but I don't think you would.

Fourth, government bailouts for private companies aren't ideal for a free market economy. That much is true. But the purpose of banks being FDIC insured is to help the average citizen in a crisis situation. The government insures up to $100K per account depositor and up to $250K for IRAs and such. That's up to $350K of individual government insurance for every bank at which a person deposits money.

Sometimes the people in charge get greedy and their companies tank. It's the byproduct of a modern economy. But in the end, it's up to each individual to care for their own finances. Know what you can and can't afford. Know how to make the money you've entrusted to banks safe. Be responsible and no one will have to bail you out of anything... except, maybe jail.

EDIT: "Let"s stay on the question!!! This IS not a campaign rally for " W "."... What are you talking about?!

Did you even read my answer? Or did you simply give it a thumbs down when I didn't bad mouth Bush? I answered your question spot on. You wanted to know why the government was doing more to help out individuals in foreclosure when it's bailing out big companies, and I answered that for you.

Just because it wasn't the answer you were looking for doesn't make it any less true. Wake up and stop following the crowd, sheep.

Answer 2

Heh.. this kinda reminds me of the movie Fun with d**k and Jane where they tricked out the CEO of giving all his money to his layed off employees...

Anyway, I would say no on getting the CEO to fork out money, his job is similar to any other in any company which is to help the company advance... just with a different job specification.. if the CEO is to fork out, I feel every employee of the company has to fork out too because everyone did their part to get the company where it is at now. Doesn't matter about pay grade difference... an average worker in the company sure earns 10 times more then a janitor who works at the company.. so why not level that out too.

Also, I am not going to defend the "average" citizen who got their home foreclosed... I do understand the pain of not having a home and understand not all of us read the fine print and hopes the fine print never boots us in the butt in the future... this is just an unlucky case of what contracts really mean and anything can happen...

Answer 3

If only we could.

The old boy network is in operation here. The ceos back the politicians and the politicians repay their cronies with bailouts.

And they switch jobs all the time.