Post by samuellajsupercool on Dec 14, 2008 15:56:51 GMT -5
Jimmy Margulies, New Jersey- The Record, 12/14/08
In the cartoon above you see a young girl sitting on Santa's lap. The girl is asking "Do the ones on the naughty list really get a lump of coal in their stocking?" and the Santa responds "Oh no they get a bailout..." In this cartoon the "ones on the naughty list" are American banks and auto companies such as General Motors and Chrysler who are failing. In response to this crisis President Bush issued a 700 billion dollar bailout plan in order "to restore both stability and confidence" back to the US financial system.
The argument in the cartoon is simple: instead of the banks and auto companies getting a "coal in their stocking" for being bad at their jobs they get money instead. The exchange is unfair because in a normal situation when someone is not working up to speed with their job they get fired. But in this case the banks and auto companies get a slap on the wrist and billions of dollars. The government should not bail these companies out because they fail at doing their jobs. And it seems as if they are just giving out money; first the banks and now General Motors and Chrysler. Maybe if they were forced to build their business back up from nothing they might succeed in not allowing it to fail again.
