Exiled From Eden (After the $700B Bailout)

Posted on | September 22, 2008 | No Comments

Now, a bit of seriousness about what we face on the other side of the $700 billion bailout.  It doesn’t seem like it now, but there will be life after the bailout.

The big question is, what kind of life?

I’m not sure, but I know our lives, at least our working/professional lives, will never be the same.

Here’s why.

• That $700B will not resurrect companies that have perished.

• Companies, business units and homes purchased at bottom-of-the-barrel prices will not be returned to their original owners.

• Laid off workers will not be returned to their old jobs.

• There’ll be no back-pay.

• Jobs outsourced to other countries will not be immediately returned to our shores.

• Many of the jobs that exist today, soon won’t exist (at least not here).

• There still won’t be a biodiesel pump at every gas station, a hydrogen cell under every hood or an electric car charger in every parking lot.

• The poor will still be too under- skilled and under- educated to get higher paying jobs.

• People with bad credit will still have bad credit, even after the companies that helped them get there emerge from bankruptcy protection.

• Health care costs will still defy explanation and coverage will still elude millions of working people.

• The Iraq war/occupation won’t instantly be over.

• Loans may be reset to their original interest rates, but that won’t guarantee that they won’t still be written off as bad debt.

• Food prices won’t magically decrease to their “good ol’ days” prices (Why roll back prices just when folks are supposed to have more money to spend?).

• Colleges won’t altruistically lower their tuition to ensure that we educate and train a competitive workforce.

• China and India won’t cease being attractive markets with highly educated, lower cost workers and billions of consumers.

And finally…

• We’re giving a $700B “Do Over” Pass to the same frat boys who got us into this mess.

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