Bailing For Failing?

A whopping $700 billion dollars have been approved to bail out Wall Street. President Bush was pretty quick to approve it - though the House and Senate weren't far behind. Now they are all standing in line - the lenders, the Big Three automakers, the airlines - waiting for their hand-outs.

All of this brings up a serious question for me. If my private business fails, will the federal government bail me out? Can I simply do haphazard things with my money and still go to the government for a hand-out? Can I just dump hundreds of thousands of dollars into CEO salaries and then not pay the price for my decisions? Better yet, do I really have to be responsible for my business plan? Or make rational business decisions?

We all know the answer to that - and it's a good, fair answer.

Hell no, they won't bail me out. Nobody is going to bail out any sole entrepeneur, or any other business for that matter. Nor should they. I don't expect it, nor do I feel that it's the role of the government to subsidize my own stupidity. The beauty of capitalism is that an entrepeneur can establish a business, make good business decisions, and subsequently make money in a open market. And the reverse is also true - poor business decisions are met with failure.

If I am good at what I do, I am paid well for it. And if I am not, then I don't earn a living. Fair is fair. That is the inherent beauty of the situation - an economic Darwinism, if you will.

But what do we call it when we essentially fund a business for failing? In some parts of the world, it would be considered socialism, given this sort of collectivist mentality. Ayn Rand must be rolling in her grave. As would some of our founding fathers I am sure.

I'd love to see the money trail on this one. I am prepared to bet that I know where a bunch of it is going - and it's not to your benefit or mine.  It's not making my stocks and funds any better. It's not making my retirement any better. It's not going to make the airline industry any more efficient, nor will it instill any greater incentive for the automakers to design fuel efficient vehicles. It's going into some deep pockets, the quick and dirty deal that hopefully nobody notices.

Over the past few weeks, we've been told repeatedly that the proverbial "sky is falling". Financial instituions failing left and right. The economy is sinking to depths unseen since the Depression. Maybe some of these corporations should be allowed to fail! If you make poor business decisions, in a capitalist world, then you should pay the price for those decisions. And if you don't pay that price - will you ever learn?

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