The Bailout: One PolicyPayer's Thoughts

Let me state up front that I am not an economist or an accountant or (thankfully) a politician. I am, however, a taxpayer, an educator, and, thankfully, a parent. Perhaps these labels can explain my unease with the recent 700 billion dollar bank bailout bamboozle: it’s okay that I don’t understand the fine print of the bailout plan because I’m not one of the policymakers—I’m just one of the many policy-“payers.” I am curious as to why we have debt capacity (we obviously don’t have MONEY) to buy bad loan debts and pay for outrageous “golden parachutes” but apparently do not have funds available to assist automakers. Don’t the CEOs and CFOs and COOs and other C-whatevers of the automotive companies deserve similar “golden parachutes” and private jets?

Observing and experiencing the financial chaos of the current economic situation leads me to compare the massive bailout plan, which will likely cost much more than originally thought, to the 68.6 billion dollar US Department of Education budget. While money alone will not address all of the complex issues that surround education, at all levels, what would happen if we, as a nation, decided that educating our citizens, both children and adults, was important enough to fund adequately? I like to imagine that such an educational utopia would prevent the current dearth of informed citizens and policymakers.

As a citizen and taxpayer, I am concerned about the level of debt that our country has, but as a parent, I am deeply disturbed by the legacy of debt and misplaced priorities that we are leaving our children. If government and big business not only accept but also reward poor fiscal behaviors, then our citizens, young and old, have little or no incentive to practice responsible fiscal behaviors. The first bailout plan simply encouraged the automakers to come forward in order to plead for their own bailout plan. The massive bailout suggests that it’s okay to make poor business decisions, to behave in unethical ways toward stakeholders’ monies, because Uncle Sam will take care of us. This benevolent uncle, however, may beguile us into accepting an increasingly central and centralized role of government. Such a government is anathema to a democratic society.

Thomas Jefferson once wrote, “I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of the society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but inform their discretion." Our public education system should be equipped to “inform [our] discretion.” As a policy-payer, I need to understand the bailout plan. As an educator, I need to inform others about the entailments of such bailout plans and discourage the short-sighted, panic-stricken decision-making that led to the plan’s acceptance. As a parent, I need to counter the misguided teachings of such fiscal irresponsibility.