Socialism American Style

Over the weekend, intense negotiations were taking place at the highest levels of our government attempting to solve this country's myriad of problems from environmental disaster and dwindling natural resources to economic catastrophe.

And it seemed as though some sensibility had come over the newly emerging socialist tendencies of our financial system when the Fed announced Sunday that it would not come to the aid of Lehman Brothers - even though it had rescued a string of similar companies in previous months. But by Wednesday, it had again decided to come to the aid of another company, AIG. Then shortly afterwords it announced a bailout of our automotive industry as well.

Yet, with all of this "rescuing" going on, by midday the stock market was still down by over 300 points.

It is certainly becoming hard to keep track of all the socialist firsts this government is making these days. Bailout after bailout from investment firms, banks, home lenders, insurance companies, and now our auto industry.

Taking into account that the fallout from Lehman Brothers will far outweigh the collapse of WorldCom, (which was previously the largest corporate bankruptcy in American history). The sheer number of companies that would have become bankrupt hadn't the government stepped in is becoming enormous, both in size and quantity.

Our economy, as reflected through Wall Streets books, would be well beyond tatters by now hadn't these bailouts occurred. This is not even accounting for the several regional banks, like WaMu and SunTrust that have also seen better days before playing the game of unregulated predatory lending.

And yet, just as in physics, these losses don't just vanish into nothing because of the governments massive bailout program. There still needs to be an accounting for every dollar whether its shifted from private to public coffers, or from liquid to gas.

You can change the substance of something, like water into steam, but it will always retain the identical mass.

So, in essence, these massive bailouts happening practically everyday are going to have to be paid for by someone. Welcome to socialism American style.

Now we as taxpayers won't have to pay for it all as there will be numerous vultures lurking in the wings just waiting to scoop up the stinking remains of the corporate victims left behind. Of course, we will also welcome foreign "investment" from Britain, Europe, China and the Middle East.

And the trend will continue for as long as there is money to be made in swooping in and taking what we think are failed businesses. Just like the sale of the Sears Tower in Chicago, it's happening all around us from Wall Street to Main Street, fire sale after fire sale. If not our government, it will be another American company, if not another American company, then it will be another foreign company, or even country.

While this is taking place, larger numbers of Americans will find themselves without employment and wondering how much their personal burden will be to the government come tax time. Doubt we will be getting any rebate checks anytime soon.

Funny to imagine all of this could have happened in just eight short years, but that is the nature of our economy. Change can happen fast.

Now, the bottom is far from being over and already the American taxpayer is left holding a pretty horrible bag of corporate debts, the FDIC is running out of "insured" money, and the Fed is suddenly finding itself backed into a corner without any good options.

In fact, the Fed is now finding out that it is not able to set its rates because they are being set for them at record high levels by a market that is more concerned with hording its reserves, or using them to pay off these bad bets made in the derivatives market.

At the same time, the American consumer is also left with little to no options itself. The job market, as weak as it is, is our saving grace and the inbred system of payroll deductions, FICA, Medicare, et. al. will ensure that the government gets the money it needs to keep ticking along saving the country from its own mistakes. However, as good paying jobs are being replaced by increasingly menial labor and lower paying positions in an ever decreasing job market, this is also becoming a slippery slope.

Unlike the 60s, we can't just burn our draft cards so to speak and decide not to support a government who has had little to no regard for its constituents because the same paper that feeds us feeds our government. It's just like a modern version of indentured servant-hood, a step away from slavery but a form of ownership never-the-less. That combined with out right to demonstrate or protest having been taken away, as is now the case, we have in effect become "sheeple".

If the government was held accountable for its actions, and we had a say, this wouldn't be the case as our money would most likely pay for things we wanted them to, but not anymore. Through the system of corporate news cycles, we are made to believe what we should think, and so our power is reduced further.

With all options seemingly off the table for the Fed, and the American people, it seems like the game is up and we have lost this bad game of poker. How big the loss becomes will certainly be much more than the devastation of Hurricane Ike and Katrina put together, but in similar fashion, we will be left holding the bag paying for the mistakes of greedy people who have effectively brainwashed our entire political system.

We can only hope that after this man-made disaster has come full circle the wasteful debris of human greed is washed away like the bad paper they helped to create.

Until then, comrades, I will save a seat for you in Siberia.