The Parable of the Government Bailout

For some reason that drives my husband absolutely crazy, I think of everything in metaphor. When I am explaining my perspective to my friends, conversations all too often turn in to the resuscitation of trite comparisons and word pictures. Perhaps I am all little over-zealous as a consumer of news and I certainly spend too much time talking to pre-schoolers, but these two elements mesh together to make me want to simplify complicated politics into nursery rhymes for children to understand. In the end, I am forced to conclude that sometimes these parables make me see through all the crap and really understand the heart of the situation, so it’s not all bad. That’s why I can’t help seeing the baby bird breaking out of its shell every time I close my eyes lately.

This is not a new analogy; we’ve all heard it before. If you let that bird break itself loose, it will be strong and prepared to live a good life. If you give into the temptation to crack the shell for the miserable creature, it won’t be prepared to survive in the world you are welcoming it into and probably die. Thank goodness that in the real world that bird doesn’t whine and beg for help.

I am convinced that this “economic crisis” will pass. But I truly believe that how we handle the difficult times will render us better, stronger people or dependent whiners looking ahead for the next bail out. Physical therapy is difficult and painful, but without it, muscles will never heal (See?? There's another one!). Likewise, once people become satiated with the idea of leaning on the government they stop wanting to support themselves. As the title of this blog suggests, all forms of government bailouts are the new slavery.

This is why I am delighted to share with you a few findings from a recent foxnews.com survey. It turns out that most of the people in this country think that fueling government spending is not the answer to the current recession. In fact, only 45 % of those polled think the current proposal will help at all. Personally, I am not taking a position on that. I am no economist and don’t really know whether spending $825 billion will help the economy recover any faster. I do believe that:

1) It’s NOT worth it. If you asked me whether a sandwich would make me less hungry, I would answer “yes.” Just don’t ask me whether I’m willing to spend $1000 on that sandwich no matter how hungry I am. (I can't stop!!!)

2) It will hurt us A LOT more than it helps, in the long run. Not just because of the ripping away of liberty, also because artificial messing with the economy tends to just band-aid the problem, not heal it as natural market forces can. Please see my article on the cows.

3) It will guarantee that our children will have to deal with our self-inflicted problems of inflation, overwhelming debt and the weakening of the American dollar.

4) We would be feeding the tyrant and creating new ones.

But there is even better news. I like the way Fox’s Chris Anderson wrote it, “Just 27 percent of Americans think elected officials in Washington are part of the solution when it comes to improving the economy, while 61 percent think they are part of the problem. Republicans (75 percent) and independents (66 percent) are more likely than Democrats (46 percent) to think politicians are part of the problem.” Good work people! I am very pleased to hear that the people of this country are not anxiously looking for someone to solve their problems. You see, we are strong and resilient. We will struggle through this with our freedom in tact and we will be stronger for it.

Please read more on this survey here.