The sky is falling

I won't pretend to be an economic expert but I have a few thoughts on the matter of the bank bailout and the failure of the bailout bill's passage. We are in this predicament due to risky sub-prime loans and loan officers acting like they were bullet-proof. This crisis isn't something that ambushed us overnight as its been going down hill for several months before it became a national crisis. I could get a little more worried if so many people weren't acting like this was the opportunity of the century. I am reminded of the following from H. L. Mencken,

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

The book State of Fear by Michael Crichton talks about how since the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989 the fear mongering in the media has expanded by leaps and bounds. Why is kind of complicated but basically "You're on the verge of apocalypse! Only I can save you, worship/follow me." covers my explanation. I feel a lot of the Global Warming stuff falls into this category as well as the Patriot Act.

To those in our country who want to socialize us (step forward Congresswomen Maxine "This liberal wants to socialize big oil" Waters) (D-CA), this is a golden gift from the gods. For heavens sake, the populace is crying out for the Government to buy and therefore own corporations because, as they postulate, Capitalism has failed. (see Websters dictionary's entry for Communism) In return for bailing out (see buying) corporations now the government gets control how they do business. Regardless if we like to admit it or not money is what makes the world go around and now, in addition to the power to make laws, tax and make war we want to hand the keys to our financial system over to the government? If we don't we are threatened with the possibility of a new depression. I have only one thing to say:

Better dead than Red