Comments on: I Don’t Care What You Say About President Obama

By: Ian McGibboney

Ian McGibboney — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 15:46:59 +0000

That is a pipe dream, I think, because not everyone has the support network to make that happen. Not everyone has a family, a church or even friends. And of those that do, many of them are also feeling the burn.

I’ll never support the idea that we need to punt people from jobs on principle, any principle.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 06:21:12 +0000

Can’t be the contractors if the foundation was unstable to begin with. No amount of work on the house can fix that.

Simple fix. You let the house slide, grieve over it for awhile, rebuild and your life comes out better than it did before because you learned not to build your house on the hillside.

While the house is lost, in the interim you put your faith in good neighbors and friends who will step up to the plate and assist you in your time of need. And the people helping you relocate come from all walks of life, there only to help with no ulterior motives.

Maybe that’s a pipe dream but you see where my analogy is going.

By: Ian McGibboney

Ian McGibboney — Thu, 02 Apr 2009 03:40:51 +0000

But that’s a straw man, Chris (forgive the Three Little Pigs association). I think a better analogy would be that the house has been renovated for years by crooked contractors, and now the shoddy worksmanship is becoming undeniably apparent. And someone – possibly a relative, benefactor or insurance agent – is offering money to redo the house. Of course, a provision of the money is that YOU GET BETTER CONTRACTORS. You see if they can’t rescue the house before you decide to write it off for a loss. No point in being thrown onto the street otherwise, right?

I guess what I’m saying is that we shouldn’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 03:22:07 +0000

The financial system is screwed over and will inevitably fail whether it be in our lifetime or a future generation’s. As long as management is greedy and the average consumer continues to borrow money they don’t have, we are on a jet-powered Harley ride to the fiery pit.

Let me ask a question here.

If you are in a house and have been told to evacuate because it is about to slide off a hill that has eroded for so long, and it is finally sliding off its foundation, do you go about re-painting and renovating that house in the deluded hope you get a longer life out of it?

Of course not, so why would we do the same to our economy?

By: Ian McGibboney

Ian McGibboney — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 01:36:17 +0000

You have to be careful in defining the financial system. It’s important to separate the greed of management and the failures of lax regulation from the workers and clients who make the system work. I don’t think the system so irretrievably screwed that we have to start over, nor do I think bailing out the companies with Obama’s regulations is giving them a free pass. In fact, Obama’s conditions demand changes in leadership and business practices. The idea is to salvage what’s good about the industries while preventing a repeat of the corporate failures.

If nothing else, it’s more palatable than asking millions to forfeit their jobs for a libertarian ideal. I doubt that would gain much traction.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 00:10:40 +0000

“be slightly modified” — as in the President and Congress (starting with Bush last year) trying to throw more funny money at a system where there is none.

By: Brian

Brian — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 23:58:41 +0000

You said it in your last comment. It’s a broken economic system with slight modifications. The economy has run this way for generations, we are just now seeing some of the gory insides. But it’s nothing new. Therefore, Obama isn’t some radical. He’s more or less par for the course.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 21:18:17 +0000

But when we as a nation have subscribed to fiscal irresponsibility and spending what we don’t have for quite some time, a concept that has extended well beyond personal fiscal issues and gone straight to the top of our financial system, do you really think the prudent solution is to try to keep encouraging that by government intervention?

It would be absolutely catastrophic if millions lost their jobs, but what if it needs to happen so we can rebuild from the ground up and ensure we all keep our jobs later?

A broken economic model that our nation has run on for years simply cannot continue, be slightly modified, and the people expect everything to be hunky dory in the end.

By: Ian McGibboney

Ian McGibboney — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:03:31 +0000

What I don’t understand is why we should let private businesses – THE VERY SAME ONES THAT FAILED – both accept public money and draw up the terms of using it. Are you kidding me? Just write a blank check! I have zero problem with Obama drawing up harsh terms if they want the bailout money. They don’t HAVE to take it. Magic of the free market and all.

I support smart government intervention because – as much as I hate to admit it – these businesses cannot afford to fail. Yes, I don’t think these greedy CEOs deserve their jobs after this; but millions of jobs are at stake. These jobs employ people who did not have their hands in the trough, and who we cannot afford to put on our already bloated unemployment rolls. We’re going to pay for this one way or the other, so I’d rather see my money keep these people employed. And that’s why I don’t think they should be left to fail.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 18:59:59 +0000

Ian–

Honestly the only solution I see to the financial crisis is to let institutions fail and then rebuild everything from the ground up again. You cannot renovate a house that is built on a sliding hill…the house will still look good but the earth is going to eat up that pretty home.

Where is the plan for educating Americans about the value of their money?
Why is there no impetus to tighten our free-for-all credit markets?
How is Obama going to accomplish his goal of solving our economy’s problems by rejecting private businesses’ recovery plans?

I’m sorry but I don’t see him helping, I see him trying but hurting us more in the process.