Why Are American Citizens So Quite On Wall Street Bailout?

September 25, 2008

The Facts

As you may have noticed, there hasn’t been a single public gathering of people protesting what is going on with the $1 trillion plus bailout of Wall Street with taxpayer money. According to most economic experts, this is the biggest economic crisis since the Wall Street crash of 1929, which resulted in the Great Depression of the 1930′s. John McCain says it’s the biggest crisis since WWII. Regardless, the voice that is screaming the loudest is the voice of no voice at all by the average American citizen.

My View

This picture is widely known as the most famous photo captured during the Great Depression. It depicts the affect on the average American. During my life I have seen this picture literally dozens of times. The photo is entitled “Migrant Mother”, showing Florence Thompson with two of her seven children. Obviously it was the sadness on Florence’s face that caught the photographers’ eye and the eye of the American people that made this picture so famous. Her expression is one of complete destitution and dejection. It’s obvious she’s lost all hope.

The Washington Post published an article today which they called Where Have All the Protest Gone?. The article listed the top current events, then said “It’s as though the gods of turmoil threw a party and nobody came. When was the last time you saw a street protest? Or a burning effigy? Or a teach-in? Or a boycott? It’s kind of odd: We have the sense that this is an emergency, but open the window and give a listen. There aren’t any sirens”. The article goes on in an attempt to understand why no one is screaming about our sad situation in our country.

I was really taken back at one particular point made in The Post’s article because it was something I’ve been thinking about for months; and that is we use the internet now to vent our frustrations and dissatisfaction instead of publically protesting. Nothing could be more truthful; especially with the younger generation today. In the 1960′s the only way the public could voice their dissatisfaction with what “the establishment” was doing was to gather by the thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, and protest in public. And the things they were protesting then really didn’t compare to what’s happening today relative to how it could affect the future of our country.  

Forget about the ill conceived Iraqi war; forget about all the rhetoric on a daily basis that bring us closer to war with other countries; forget about the millions of American jobs that have been lost in recent years; forget about all other things except the events of the past four months; the bailout of the fat cats on Wall Street using tax money paid by hard working average American citizens. You’d think this alone would have millions of us “marching” on Washington; both the White House and the Capital. But we’re not.

Bill Schneider, a well know political commentator, said “people are taking this situation very serious, but what they are saying is they don’t trust what’s coming out of Washington”. He made this statement in rebuttal of those who were saying the public was not recognizing the seriousness of the current financial crisis. Schneider was right; most of us know how serious this is, even though there is many that do not understand what’s happening. A television business reporter read an email on air the other day from a viewer. The viewer said “I read somewhere that the bailout was going to cost everyone $2000. I don’t have that kind of money. What am I going to do? What if I refuse to pay?” (Unfortunately, these kinds of people have a voter registration card in their pocket.) But the point is, people do take the situation serious, but we don’t seem to care enough to shout loud enough.

CNN ran a poll on Tuesday of this week that asked the question “Who stands to gain the most from the proposed bailout plan?” 64% of the more than 32,000 people who responded said Wall Street would gain the most. Yet we aren’t shouting very loud.

I think there are two reasons we aren’t shouting loud enough on this bailout. The first is that we have come to think like our elected officials; it’s on the credit, money borrowed from foreign countries, so it really doesn’t mean anything (we’re living for today, not tomorrow). The second is that we have become extremely politically polarized and we are too busy fighting with one another over whose political party is the right party. And on this issue, we’re just waiting to see which party wants the bailout and which one doesn’t to determine how loud we want to shout. In this case, both parties seem to want it, so we just seem willing to accept it. We don’t realize there will be a day of reckoning; a day when a loaf of bread is going to cost $25, maybe twice that, because our dollar has become worthless due to hyper-inflation. Even Warren Buffet said our dollar will become worthless if we stay on this path.

If we have learn anything at all where our politicians are concerned, it should be that no matter which political party we are talking about, they will run amok unless the citizens keep them in check. And our becoming polarized allows them to run amok. With this taxpayer bailout of the very institutions that have taken our jobs, devalued our investments with their greed while lining their own pockets, hid billions of their dollars offshore to keep from paying taxes, and so many other things, I was absolutely convinced there would be a unified voice so loud coming out of the land it could be heard around the world. I thought if nothing else would ever do it, this would. But I am in complete shock that hasn’t happened. I am now convinced there is nothing our elected officials can do that will cause us to unify. The sad part is, they know it too.