My main problem with the bailout (and I'm really not that well-versed on this, so bear with me) is that it seems to me that if the taxpayers have 700 billion dollars to throw around, then the taxpayers should be able to spend that 700 billion on themselves in the event of a really bad recession, rather than using it to bail out predatory and incompetent corporate entities that did most of the work that put them in the really bad recession.
Also, Our country has been running on these "You fuck up you die" economic principles for so long that it is uniquely and specifically offensive and insane at this historical moment in this country to be bailing out these corporations, essentially saying "There is a completely different standard for corporations then there are for the little people." This bailout may actually be the right thing to do, but, unlike Sweden, we have been living in economic conditions that are totally opposed to government intervention, and if they're going to intervene in this, then they better follow it up with, or at least start talking about, some kind of investment in social assistance down the line for people who need it.
Also, the taxpayers actually don't have 700 billion dollars to throw around, so NO.
Also (and somewhat related to what I just said) wouldn't any corporate exec worth their salt start streamlining the shit out of their corporations with or without the bailout? I mean, doesn't it stand to reason that the fear itself is enough to create the conditions we're wishing to avoid even if a bailout gets passed? And then if there's no self-correction that occurs, what's to keep this from becoming the new pattern; people get hyper-rich on speculation, taxpayers bail them out on borrowed money. That's like paying off your Visa with your Mastercard every month. How many times can we do that before our entire country is foreclosed on by all the other countries that bought all our debt?
I got a lot of questions, yesno.
I feel like this crisis ought to be the final death-knell for the insanity of Reaganomics, but my fear is that this bailout will happen and then the impulse will be to simply carry on as if nothing just happened. I can't even begin to understand what that would mean for the country.