Government Boundaries

The past effects of the government bailout that have been discussed were primarily with a narrow focus. The repercussion that will be discussed now deals with the government’s initial authority on actually being able to perform this action. I believe that this aspect must be examined because too often in our day to day lives regular citizens do not pay close enough attention to the actions of our government. We become passive and disinterested in their dealings. I believe that this cannot be done in the current situation of our country. Once you actually start to examine and see what our elected officials are doing and the reasoning behind it, you might become afraid. I am not going to go as far as some individuals in the media do by calling the current administration a socialist government. However, I do believe that each one of us must ask ourselves, how far do we let them go and how much power do we give the government before things could get out of hand?

One must determine at what point does capitalism end and socialism begin. I believe that capitalism will be brought down by individuals who do not allow the free markets to work in a truly free and competitive fashion. If the government continues to interfere in the private sector by bailing out these failing corporations then that will signal the end of capitalism as we know it, in my opinion. This debate of federal government power goes back to the heart of political ideologies, which is not my concern here. What I am concerned with is that our administration does not seem to be understanding that based on their bailout history recently they are not helping to improve our markets. Yet, they continue to take more and more power and look to delve deeper and deeper into the private market. That is the scary part.

I understand that the government has had a history of bailing companies out. By taking a look at this history hopefully it will allow us to get a better perspective on where we currently stand. According to propublica.org, the United States government has bailed out corporations 15 times since 1970. This number does not seem so bad and I’m sure you’re thinking what is the big deal with them doing it right now then? Of those 15 times, 7 have occurred since 2008! This means that the United States government has bailed out privately held companies as many times in the past 2 years as they have in the past 38 years basically. Recently these bailouts have ranged from Bear Sterns to the auto industry to the Bank TARP program. This is where my concern comes in. The past 2 years the government has overstepped their boundary line immensely and it must stop.

With the kind of power to bail out any company in the country regardless of what sector they are in means that the government also has the power to destroy any country if they so choose. It is my belief that the government’s spending and overall power must be scaled back and one of the ways that this can be done is with no mare bailouts. Washington should do its job and let the market do its job.

Source:
http://www.propublica.org/special/government-bailouts#bofa