Bitter sweet victory for American people
The House rejected the 700 billion dollar bailout plan! A majority of the American people is against the plan, because they strongly feel it’s mostly beneficial to the ‘fat cats’ on Wall Street, who are mostly responsible for this mess in the first place.
The ‘fat cats’ now scream the loudest, along with people like Bush, Paulson and Pelosi, that the NO vote will have a deep impact on Main Street, the real economy in every day life. Unfortunately, there is some truth to this. The inflated financial system has gained so much influence in the real economy during the last decades that things can go south because of the crisis. We can debate if this plan would have done something good, probably not much, but it’s clear the US needs some kind of rescue plan. Not to help the ‘fat cats’ on Wall Street, but the regular American on Main Street.
What needs to be done is designing a plan that eases the economic pain for regular Americans, and let the financial institutions fall if it happens. The crisis is actually an opportunity to cut the fat. The financial market has grown way too big, are all those banks and financial institutions really needed? They have a function in the economy, but only when they serve the real economy. The financial market inflated to a point where it doesn’t serve the real economy anymore, but became some sort of casino instead. The ‘fat cats’ and many others of the top 1% of the American population, who own about 40% of the nation’s wealth, gambled there like there’s no tomorrow and now they lost. Rightfully the majority of the US population, say the bottom 80% who own only 10% of the nation’s wealth, refuse to pay the bill.
For all those people the NO vote is a victory. They set up campaigns within days to protest against the bailout and won. Unfortunately, the economic problems are getting bigger for most Americans in the near future. A rescue plan to help Main Street Americans can provide some relief, but even if such a plan is executed it’s almost certain there are difficult times ahead for the US. It’s a victory, but a bitter sweet one.
