http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/09/bailout-government-spending-justice-opinions-columnists-populism.htmlWhy shouldn't bailouts and government spending make us angry?... the national mood, defined by continuing popular rage over the bailouts, seems darker. Talking heads have jumped on this rage, calling it a resurgence of 19th-century populist fury at bankers and other elites. But this characterization allows them to dismiss the rants or even demonize them as the output of ignorant yokels driven by irrational anxieties.
This is a mistake. The anger is entirely righteous. And it's being driven by four factors--all of which are completely rational.
Factor One: The cheapening of our good national character. Most people don't begrudge being the proverbial helping hand. Americans have always been generous, even in vile economic times. Rates of charitable giving in the U.S., as a percentage of gross domestic product, tower over other rich countries...
the bailouts tarnish this charitable impulse by functioning like a stickup.
Essentially, we woke up one morning to hear: "Your money or your life." And not just to bail out homeowners (imprudent and sybaritic as they may have been). We're also being told that unless we pony up hundreds of billions of dollars for Wall Street (even more imprudent and sybaritic), the country will become a sort of Bangladesh with iPhones.
It's the difference between putting your own hand in your pocket and getting your pocket picked...Also, unlike most forms of charity, it's a redistribution of income that goes up--from middle-class taxpayers to the really rich. (Some of whom, as the tax-fraud scandal at UBS reveals, don't even pay taxes.)
I have a friend who is admirable in every way. But when her husband received a retention bonus from a bailed-out bank, I went red with rage. Nobody wants to be played for a sucker. Least of all by somebody richer.
Factor Two: Bailouts are an offense to our political culture. We elect politicians to do things that we favor and stop things we don't. But--hola!--this crisis has exposed the political class as totally impotent, complicit or, worse, in the pocket of Wall Street. Sen. Chris Dodd's mutually rewarding relationship with AIG is only one small example. And so there's a lot of political sputtering going on from elected officials while the non-elected whisk away the money. Right this minute, the agencies of the political system--the Fed, FDIC, Treasury and others--are forking over the national treasure at a furious pace.
Transparency? Fuggedaboutit. I dare you to hit the Treasury's Web site and pierce the veil over the Public-Private Investment Program.
Accountability? Not so far. And especially not during congressional hearings, which consist of more political sputter and agency cant.
Factor Three: Justice, the judicial kind, has been a no-show. The whole point of being a nation of law is that the law, in its abstract but relentless way, will punish. But few are getting punished. In fact, some of same miscreants who dumped us into this crisis will make tons of money from the cleanup.
Factor Four: There is fright, pure and simple, at the vast amount of government spending. Consider that the billions of dollars of bailouts come on top of billions of dollars motored out in the so-called stimulus package and next year's budget. Then consider the likely results of this spending: ballooning budget deficits and the national debt, wicked inflation and climbing taxes. Fright is the only reasonable response.
OK, so this is a rant, too. But it's a righteous rant.
Susan Lee has written several books on economics, including a college text. She is an economics commentator for NPR's "Marketplace" and writes a weekly column for Forbes.
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