Fleeced … or do you take a corporation at their word?
I was talking to a couple of people yesterday at work about this whole FINANCIAL CRISIS. One older lady who we’ll call Ana Benson said, “We have to bail GM out. What choice do we have? We have to bail these people out.”
Another guy we’ll call Obi-Wan said, “In theory, it’s a bad idea, but practically speaking, we have no choice.”
I understand the practical side of it.
Afterwards, a question occurred to me: “Do you take a corporation at their word?”
For example, execs from GM are saying they’re going to run out of money in January.
If I was in charge, like King Paulson, I would look at them and say, “Well, we’ll talk to you in January and we might help you. We’ll probably help you liquidate your assets to Toyota, but we’ll talk to you then.”
Why(tm) would I say that?
Well, let me answer that question with another question: Why would you trust a corporation to begin with?
Has everyone forgotten Enron? Has everyone forgotten Worldcom? Those are companies that lied on their financial statements! How do we know we can trust GM’s quarterly statements? How do we know we can trust the auditors who say those statements are good?
We don’t know. We are taking banks at their word, corporations at their word, cities and states at their word … meanwhile, we the taxpayer are getting fleeced.
Similar Posts:
- Google free wi-fi at airports
- [RANT] In other news….
- Afghanistan and NPR: What I Learned
- Lazy Man’s Ethics and Elliot Spitzer
- One more headline
- Mary Landrieu, highest paid prostitute, Lieberman, Rush Limbaugh, money for their constituents, Hannity, Pat Gray, payola, tangent time, tweet levels, 1856, Trust Level, Perez Hilton, EARTH-ZERO, narrow is the path, philosophical honesty
- Glenn Beck vs. Michelle Malkin
From the psychological point of view, it seems people are projecting their own desires to get bailed out and to be sympathized with.
In the Old Earth, struggling companies go bankrupt, not “bailed out”. As much as I personally feel sorry for the people who stand to lose their jobs from GM, and the affect that would have on the economy: I gotta say I don’t want my taxes to be used to pay their pensions. It’s absurd.
Another thing that’s absurd about GM’s “necessary” bailout: last I checked, most Americans have cars, and get used cars anyway.
The way auto companies and American Express collect debt from middle-class Americans actually contributes to the squeeze that everyone is going through.
Do I trust corporations? Most corporations are like sports owners- they have “funny” bookkeeping.
Never forget Enron.
this bailout will only prolong the inevitable.
to pay companies that are making products that no one is buying makes no sense in the long term, but I think everybody already knows this and it doesnt need explaining…
“Why” is trademarked?