Friday, February 12, 2010
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Bank Bailouts
So much has been going on throughout this last decade and even the decade before. Many executives running these major financial institutions are just downright unscrupulous. The days of the neighborhood banks where you could walk in and everyone knew your name, such as The Bailey's Building & Loan in "It's a Wonderful Life," are gone. I think we are living in "Pottersville" now. The people that run the banks don't care about you as a person. All they care about is making money off of you. Financial institutions are charging astronomical percentage rates on credit cards to keep people in debt. They extend more credit to lower income families, knowing that they will not be able to pay that debt which in turn causes more foreclosures -- just like Mr. Potter did in the movie.
Then, what happens to the banks when they have all of these foreclosures? They go to the government to ask for a bailout. The way our government was originally set up, if a company could not pay their bills, they went out of business -- simple as that. Do you think if I had a business and I couldn't pay my bills anyone would care? No. If Mr. Ford was not able to sell his Model T's in the early 1900's then he would have gone out of business.
But instead, these banks go and ask for help and the government gives it to them. Not long after they were bailed out, we heard many stories where top executives were taking extravagant corporate retreats or "needed" to have their offices remodeled to the tune of millions of dollars. I'm sure that office was in a total state of disrepair and really needed millions of dollars of remodeling -- don't you?
There was even talk about many of the executives getting raises in order to keep them there. I really don't think raises are necessary to keep them there -- they should have just been happy to have a job. I mean, seriously, just a few months before they were in "bailout" mode and were at risk of having NO job at all.
It makes me sad to see how twisted everything has become. Why can't life be simple again as in bygone days? I'd like to go into a bank that was run by the type of people that "George Bailey" hired. Wouldn't it be nice to go "where everybody knows your name?"
Then, what happens to the banks when they have all of these foreclosures? They go to the government to ask for a bailout. The way our government was originally set up, if a company could not pay their bills, they went out of business -- simple as that. Do you think if I had a business and I couldn't pay my bills anyone would care? No. If Mr. Ford was not able to sell his Model T's in the early 1900's then he would have gone out of business.
But instead, these banks go and ask for help and the government gives it to them. Not long after they were bailed out, we heard many stories where top executives were taking extravagant corporate retreats or "needed" to have their offices remodeled to the tune of millions of dollars. I'm sure that office was in a total state of disrepair and really needed millions of dollars of remodeling -- don't you?
There was even talk about many of the executives getting raises in order to keep them there. I really don't think raises are necessary to keep them there -- they should have just been happy to have a job. I mean, seriously, just a few months before they were in "bailout" mode and were at risk of having NO job at all.
It makes me sad to see how twisted everything has become. Why can't life be simple again as in bygone days? I'd like to go into a bank that was run by the type of people that "George Bailey" hired. Wouldn't it be nice to go "where everybody knows your name?"
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