Maybe someone can explain this bailout to me ...

* Why do we need to bail out some people to the tune of $700 B-B-BILLION?

* Whom shall we be bailing out?

* What happens if we don't?

* Will someone bail me out?

Guess what:

* We are not bailing out the Government. The Government will not go bankrupt.

* We are not bailing out the poor people on welfare. The Government pays them.

* We are not bailing out people with savings accounts. They are insured by the FDIC to the tune of some $100,000 per person per bank. If they are keeping more than that kind of money in a bank uninsured at typically stupidly low interest rates then they are not very smart and deserve to lose it. (Yes, Social Darwinist, deal with it.)

* We are not bailing out those of us who choose to park our savings in real estate and durable goods. These shall not lose their value. They are real and durable. Duhhh...

* We are not bailing out the cash economy. You know, like Newport, RI, where all transactions are in cash and nobody reports any income.

So who is left? Shareholders, stock brokers, corporate magnates, money people, that's who.

Which is where all this problem started: People trying to be cute, knowingly at the expense of others, with rampant disregard for their fiduciary responsibilities to others:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122273029076687929.html

This citation recommends reestablishing a standard for value that is independent of the "unbridled greed and recklessness" of men. A standard such as gold or a bimetallic (gold and silver) that would provide such a buffer. The point is, that if you back your value with reality (gold, silver, real estate, durable goods) then you are insured against the stupidity and greed of market manipulators.

* So, why should I bail them out? Guess what: high risk investment is just that: possibly high gain, but possibly high loss. This time they got caught out and should pay the price.

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Here is some basic math; all it takes is simple division:

+ Let's see: I have some $300K left on the house mortgage and another say $50K on various personal property items. $350K in round numbers, which happens to divide nicely into 700,000,000,000.

+ 700,000,000,000 divided by 350,000 gives 2,000,000. TWO MILLION people like me.

* So who is going to bail me out? Why not bail out ME?! Isn't it better for society at large to bail out TWO MILLION honest, hardworking, and responsible people than a much smaller number of predatory and irresponsible people?

How much smaller a number? The census bureau points to some 3,512,000 people working as financial specialists:

http://pubdb3.census.gov/macro/032008/perinc/new06_001.htm

Not all of them are irresponsible, of course, but if two-thirds of them are then we are back to this magic 2 MILLION number. So it starts looking like $700 billion is going to bail out 2 million financial workers with lifestyles like mine.

But hang on, these dudes are NOT like me. They make a whole bunch more than I do. Looking at the same table I find that there are 492 thousand financial workers making over $100 grand. Wow!

So let's get real:

Let's be generous. Let's round this up to 500 thousand such people in the financial sector making over $100K a year. Divide that into $700 billion.

* That gives $1.4 million to each one of these dudes!!! Tax Free!!!

Yikes! Better than the lottery.

Will anyone give ME $1.4 mil, tax free (or otherwise)??

Of course not...

Oh, and by the way, they may already have parked their fortunes elsewhere. The following article cites $3.4 TRILLION (that is $3,400,000,000,000 - man, look at all those zeros!) as residing overseas, or just under $7 MILLION for each of those 350,000 money people making over $100K:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122273062657688131.html

Think about it.

Of course, I know my conclusions are guesses. As someone said, there are lies, damned lies, and statistics.

But they give you a sense of the magnitude and scope of the problem:

* The proposed bailout will benefit a relatively small number of people who do not deserve to benefit

* The proposed bailout will not benefit the vast majority of us who are not at blame for, nor at risk from, the situation.

* The economy and those of us not at blame shall survive, as evidenced by today's quick market rebound.

* If anything is to be done it is to return the money system to a reality based standard, such as the gold standard or a bimetallic standard to preclude this sort of damage from predators and speculators (one and the same...)

So, the immediate and correct answer is NO. To any of these schemes, but especially to the bailout.

Ye reap what ye sow.

Deal with it.