Wall St. Bailout: Outrage On Main St.
How far would you go to express your outrage at the corporate bailout? Here’s what Sandor and Tracey Bors did: living on busy Jefferson Road, they realized their house was an ideal location to remind everyone to call Congress to protest the bailout. They’re part of a wave of indignation that is sweeping the nation, crossing party lines, as Americans everywhere finally realize the bill of goods we’ve been literally sold by corporate America. So this Pittsford family put up a sign:
I spoke with Sandor and Tracey yesterday on what drove them to take this unusual step. They were clearly angry about the proposed bailout as it stands, but I was impressed with how calmly, clearly, and firmly they spoke about it. Here’s Tracey:
It’s [the bailout] is foisting the errors of Wall St. on the public. It blows me away, it’s absolutely unbelievable. Wall St. is now dictating policy, and it’s unconstitutional.
They’ve been talking with everyone they know about this, and I asked what kind of response they’ve been getting.
Righteous indignation. People are fired up [against it]. They know that it’s unconstitutional.
At that point, Sandor joined the conversation and added:
It’s not a left vs. right issue. It’s financial terrorism. A handful of bankers are dictating policy. It’s not right for us to just give them [Wall St.] money without fixing the problems [like rampant de-regulation] that allowed this to happen.
One thing about this issue, people across the board are getting fired up and involved, and it’s great to see, since how we handle this may be the single most pivotal event in recent history.
As I was taking the picture, a man who just happened to be walking past said to me out of the blue “Do the math.” He explained. “They’re talking about $700 Billion, and about 1.5 million mortgages? That averages out to $500,000/mortgage. You think there are that many mortgages out there for $500,000? We’re paying for all kinds of extra stuff.” Like CEO bonuses and golden parachutes? “Yeah, just like that.”
Here’s my takeaway messages from the interview: 1) why are we letting bankers dictate unconstitutional policy, without fixing the underlying problems that got us here? 2) The math pretty much proves that we’re using taxpayer dollars for a lot of extra stuff.
Note: Ugh. The “deal” that Congress reached over the weekend is still horrible– basically lipstick on the pig that was the original plan. We’re selling out our future to save Wall St. CEOs. Even if you called your Rep and Senators, time to call them again and keep the pressure on. Say “Hell no!” to this non-solution to the non-crisis.
Update: The plan was voted down. Yay. The American People won this one. If Congress wants to do something about this, do it right and make us proud.
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