Concerning the Bailout...

Are you STILL confused about the bailout? Are you STILL trying to wrap your mind around the numbers being thrown around every day by politicians? Here are some things to think about:

The auto industry was asking for $700,000,000,000 billion. Or, as the media would say, $700 billion. I think they should be required to SHOW how many zeros are in that number.

Let’s consider this number based on an individual’s responsibility:

As of November 2008, it is estimated that the population of humans living on planet Earth is 6.73 billion. If the bailout passed at $700 billion, that means that every man, woman and child, working or not, sick or healthy, American citizen or any other person living on the planet would need to contribute $104.01 each to cover the bailout.

If other countries think it’s our problem, which it is, and they would prefer to pay their own bills and have us pay our own (gee, there’s an idea), then that leaves the American tax-paying population to foot the bill. There are approximately 305,725,980 people in America right now. This means each American is contributing $2,289.63 EACH toward the bailout at $700 billion.
But wait, I said “tax-paying” Americans. When you consider the fact that there are approximately 43 million Americans who filed an income tax return, but who had no tax liability, that leaves only 262,725,980 people to divide the bill, which brings it up to $2,664.37 per person, including children.

Now let’s look at it based on households:

According to Census Bureau, In 2007, the median annual household income rose 1.3% to $50,233.00.

There is an average of 2.59 people per household. This means that each household would be responsible for $6,900.72 to pay for the bailout.

With an average annual income of $50,233 per household (Census Bureau, 2007), this means the average household will spend 13.7% of their annual income for the bailout!

I don’t know about the rest of you, but we can barely pay our $200/month electric bill. I certainly don’t know where we’re going to come up with money to cover the bailout and believe me – we WILL PAY FOR THIS!!! Whether it’s today or tomorrow, the money must come from somewhere.

The people making the choice:

The annual salary of each United States senator and each representative, as of 2008, is $169,300. This means that they are spending 1.35% of their salary for the bailout. This doesn’t include extra income from their spouses, speaking engagements, and other investments. In other words, most senators would be spending less than 1% where the rest of us are spending over 13% of our income!!

Who is going to pay for this bailout?

Americans who work hard to make sure that we manage our businesses properly, pay our bills on time, pay our own mortgages, and WORK will be paying for this bailout – whether it’s $700 billion or $15 billion. We are working so hard that we’re working ourselves to death to take care of the elite who are making decisions that affect people they know nothing about like those of us struggling to buy food, but who don’t qualify for any sort of aid and don’t want it anyway. Senators and representatives claim to be the voice of the people, but they are no longer the voice of the people. When a median income is around $50 and they make more than three times that amount, they are NO LONGER THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE. They are the voice of those who have lined their pockets with donations and given them special interests to fight for at the expense of the rest of us who have no special interest other than being hard-working citizens of the United States of America.

If you still care at all what citizens of the United States think about this issue, PLEASE VOTE AGAINST ANY BAILOUT plan. Tell your congressmen that you oppose it! We are tired of paying for people who mismanage their money, even if it means that thousands of people will lose their jobs. Let the free-market work. Perhaps they will find better jobs, but it certainly is their responsibility to find ANOTHER job. When in America did we develop the attitude that it is an employers (or the government's?!?) responsibility to ensure that people have a job?? It's a person's responsibility to FIND A JOB or - in America at least - to CREATE one for themselves. Start a new business or better car company. That used to be the American way, but now it is increasingly rare to see someone have the attitude or initiative to be AMERICAN when our socialist-leaning government is trying to pave the way for goverment-owned businesses rather than privately-owned businesses.

If you vote for the bailout and continue to throw money at companies who can’t manage it well in the first place, what makes you think they will manage it any better now? If they couldn’t manage their OWN money, why in the world do you think they are going to manage someone else’s money better?