Second Thots

I'm not an economist. I'm not a financial expert. However, I think that I'm probably with most people when I say that I don't like it when taxpayers, especially from other countries, have to bailout huge companies, or even governments, after they behave incredibly irresponsibly.

The same holds true for Greece and its government as it does for GM, Chrysler, and their inept management teams. Why should we have to, in essence, reward people who behaved badly? And what about governments and companies that acted responsibly? What do they get? Well, they have to pay their share of the tax bill, too, don't they.

Here's my intellectual challenge for the day: Look up the word moral hazard, and ask yourself if it's in anyone's long-term interest to keep bailing these characters out.

As far as I'm concerned, and I've said this before, I think the same holds true for stimulus spending. I don't think it's much more than taxpayer-funded largess to government-friendly companies, and it doesn't do what it's supposed to do, which is to actually stimulate the economy and produce jobs. Just look at the US now to see whether or not that's true. And what about small honest businesses that don't get stimulus funds? Why, in essence, are they being discriminated against?

It tends to be somewhat fashionable these days to make fun of tea party protesters in the United States. However, if this huge welfare state mentality continues, instead of friendly tea partiers taking to the streets, you might get more of the rioting, fires, and killings that we're seeing in Greece right now. Does it really have to be this way?