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I don't want to live in a socialist country.

And yet I do. Yesterday Bush said that he wants to give 700 billion dollars to help bail out a few key companies. That is to say, my money is going to pay for other companies to not fail. This is socialism.

I am sorry, but I don't want my hard earned money going to bail out companies that have been loaning money to people that can't afford a loan. These companies are bankrupt FOR A REASON! These companies have been making bad decisions for a long time, and we, the tax payers, are now going to flat out give them money for making bad decisions? GIVE ME A BREAK!

Yes, if the companies fail, it will lead to an economic downturn, or as Dave Ramsey puts it, "a cold winter for many." But maybe this is something that we need. It is proven that forests need forest fires to live. The longer a forest lives without a forest fire, the more it NEEDS a forest fire. The National Park Service understands this, and will periodically set fires to old forests.

Just like forests, our economy needs to be reset every once in a while. The 1920s are known as a decade of decadent spending, of people having lots of money without knowing what to do with it. So what happened in the '30s? There was a crash in the economy, and the economy reset. Now, again, in the past 20 years, people have spent more money than ever, most of which isn't theirs (they loaded it). Now, the economy is suffering because millions of people spent more money than they could afford to. Our economy needs to reset, and people need to learn the lesson that you can only spend what you make!

And let's look at the 700 BILLION DOLLAR figure. From this blog, here are some facts about $700,000,000,000:

It is one third of the total amount of money received by the federal government in 2007, including social security, income tax, corporate tax, and all other receipts.
It is $140 billion more than has been spent on the Iraq war since the invasion.
It is nine times the amount spent on education in 2007.
It is 35 times the amount spent on all foreign aid in most years.
Its over twice the amount of all money given to all charitalbe organizations in the United States in any given year.
It is more than $100 for every person in the world.

And, if you do the math, it is $2,300 per man woman, and child in America today. Think about it this way: earlier this year the government gave most tax payers $300 to stimulate the economy. What would happen if the government gave every person in America $2,300. You think THAT would stimulate the economy?

So on this point, I disagree with President Bush. His plan is socialism, pure and simple. There are MANY more problems with this situation than just the $700 billion, but that number itself is reason enough to be frustrated with the government.

Matthew