Our Government Needs to Rethink About Who It's Rewarding

When it comes to the economy there is much anxiety on the minds of consumers as Wall Street and the state of the economy have been very volatile.

It doesn't help matters that we also right now are in the midst of a lame duck presidency and Congress set to adjourn for recess very shortly.

We have witnessed unprecedented bailouts of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, American International Group, Inc., (AIG), and Citigroup. The government with the recent injections is hoping that this is going to promote stability in the market and will allow consumers to feel more confident.

There was also the stimulus package that was passed by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush last summer in hopes that this would bring more consumer confidence in the overall state of the economy.

With all of these developments none of these have helped to produce more consumer confidence or stability in the market. There is more uncertainty and this is creating havoc with people and not knowing whether this will be a short or long term recession.

As I talk with everyday people, I've noticed that people have become very pessimistic and negative on the overall conditions of the economy and people are worried about whether their investments will continue to shrink before them.

There have been recent layoffs and job cuts from various sectors of the economy. Now, with Congress set to come back this week there's the issue of a bailout for the three U.S. automobile industries. It almost seems inevitable that there will most likely be a bailout to deal with this crisis as well.

My question is, "How can the politicians possibly be willing to bailout the financial industries, and not the automobile industries too?"

The answer is that it will be difficult for them not to include a bailout for the three automakers without taking into account that they did a bailout to the financial segments with no questions asked. Of course, the government lets you know that they have a personal stake in some of those companies and that this is suppose to lead to profitability through taking over some of the companies mentioned.

A real concern about this entire bailout scheme is that if we help the financial industries and the automobile industries than what will prevent others to come forward for a bailout too?

It seems that what we are doing is rewarding the big wigs that made terrible decisions and put themselves first before everyday working people who depend on investments for retirement planning. Where is the social responsibility when it comes to corporate America and looking out for the common man?

Many people have witnessed their investments dwindle and some have lost everything. These people worked hard all their lives and put their money into places that they thought were fiscally sound i.e. Lehman Brothers. This once stable name went bankrupt without any notice.

If Lehman Brothers can go belly up than what is there to say that this can't happen to other well established business entities in the future? We don't know if we have hit bottom yet when it comes to the economy and this is a very troubling assessment of what we may face in the next year or so.

As a government we are sending the wrong message that we will reward people who make poor financial decisions, and that if you happen to be a CEO of a major company that goes belly up or isn't profitable that you can keep your earnings. Furthermore, we will consider your company for a bailout, but when it comes to the average everyday person we don't have any help for you.

This is a terrible message that we are sending and one that is very troublesome. We shouldn't be rewarding people who lack leadership, but helping those people who have worked all their lives tirelessly and should be given help when they had nothing to do with this mess that we have found ourselves in.

We the people need to write to our elected officials and demand reform and transparency from corporate America. Our aim should be to make changes so that this kind of behavior will not be accepted and continued in the future.