Let's privatize profit and socialize risk!

[squirell nutkin]

Here's my plan:

Any business that wants to gamble financially can do so without fear of losing their money because if their gambles fail to pay out, the us taxpayers will bail them out. If their gambles prove to be successful, then they are all the wealthier.

This will be great for everyone because rich people are known for spending money that will "trickle down" to the less rich.

I think this is an excellent plan, and see no real problems with it.

[Nirvana]

Put down the drugs/alcohol and step away from the computer!

[squirell nutkin]

sober as a judge.

[jinx]

This is the plan that has worked out fantastically for the vaccine business. Profits of $500 million in 1990 - to $24 billion in 2009 - to a projected $52 billion in 2016.

link

[SamIam]

I think social security recipients should be the ones to bail them out. With the baby boomers growing long in the tooth, we are going to have more old geezers wandering around than ever before. Do we really want to build all those nursing homes, put up with alzheimers patients running amuck down main street, changing adult diapers, and endure with Auntie Maud who blessedly kicks the bucket at 97, only to leave all her money to the Welsh Corgi Society of Auckland? I say "no!"

Plenty of old peope live on nothing but their social security check. A few such payments will leave them penniless. They'll be turned out of their houses in droves and take up residence on park benches where the first hard frost will finish them off. Problem solved.

[lookout123]

Sounds like you should run for office SN. Plenty of nuts in DC think along those lines already.

[Spexxvet]

It will only work if you remove all regulations from business and remove that pesky slavery thing from the constitution.

[Nirvana]

I HAVE DECIDED TO BECOME A WRITE-IN CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT IN THE YEAR 2012..
HERE IS MY PLATFORM:

(1). Any use of the phrase: 'Press 1 for English' is immediately BANNED!!!. English is the official language; speak it or wait outside of our borders until you can.

(2). We will immediately go into a two year isolationist attitude in order to straighten out the greedy big business posture in this country. America will allow NO imports, and we'll do no exports. We will use the 'Wal-Mart 's policy, 'If we ain't got it, you don't need it.' We'll make it here and sell it here!

(3). When imports are allowed, there will be a 100% import tax on it coming in here.

(4). All retired military personnel will be required to man one of the many observation towers located on the southern border of the United States (six month tour). They will be under strict orders not to fire on SOUTHBOUND aliens.

(5). Social Security will immediately return to its original state. If you

didn't put nuttin in, you AIN'T gettin nuttin out.. Neither the President nor any other politician will be able to touch it.

(6). Welfare. -- Checks will be handed out on Fridays, at the end of the 40 hour school week, the successful completion of a urinalysis test for drugs, and passing grades.

(7). Professional Athletes -- Steroids? The FIRST time you check positive you're banned from sports ... for life.

(8). Crime -- We will adopt the Turkish method, i.e., the first time you steal, you lose your right hand. There is no more 'life sentences'. If convicted of murder, you will be put to death by the same method you chose for the victim you killed: gun, knife, strangulation, etc.

(9). One export of ours will be allowed: wheat; because the world needs to eat. However, a bushel of wheat will be the EXACT price of a barrel of oil.

(10). All foreign aid, using American taxpayer money, will immediately cease and the saved money will help to pay off the national debt and, ultimately, lower taxes. When disasters occur around the world, we'll ask The American People if they want to donate to a disaster fund, and each citizen can make the decision as to whether, or not, it's a worthy cause.
(11). The Pledge of Allegiance will be said EVERY day at school and every day in CONGRESS.

(12). The National Anthem will be played at all appropriate ceremonies, sporting events, outings, etc.

My apology is offered if I've stepped on anyone's toes .... nevertheless....
GOD BLESS AMERICA !
Sincerely, Bill Cosby

[squirell nutkin]

Originally Posted by lookout123

Sounds like you should run for office SN. Plenty of nuts in DC think along those lines already.

Kind of angling for a spot on wall street, but phase 2 of my plan will include something like no income tax for life and full salary for life after I serve my term in office.

[classicman]

@ Nirvana - I've read that before. It just makes too much sense and there cannot be long winded boorish debates and lobbyists throwing money at
politicians without these (issues we (complicated) problems to solve.)

[xoxoxoBruce]

Not Bill Cosby.

[Lamplighter]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

Not Bill Cosby.

Too bad it's not BC. I was all prepared to post:

That's about as foolish as was his TV show... with one exception: Lisa Bonet

[Griff]

Ross Douthat hits the socialization of losses pretty hard today. You would think that liberals and conservatives could work together on this. Smacking McMansion speculation would seem to make good political sense right now.

The trick is to channel those impulses in a constructive direction. The left-wing instinct, when faced with high-rolling irresponsibility, is usually to call for tax increases on the rich. But the problem, here and elsewhere, isn’t exactly that we tax high rollers’ incomes too lightly. It’s that we subsidize their irresponsibility too heavily — underwriting their bad bets and bailing out their follies. The class warfare we need is a conservative class warfare, which would force the million-dollar defaulters to pay their own way from here on out.

I really like his conclusion.

This kind of spending can be problematic. But conservatives need to recognize that the most pernicious sort of redistribution isn’t from the successful to the poor. It’s from savers to speculators, from outsiders to insiders, and from the industrious middle class to the reckless, unproductive rich.

My pet peeves are subsidizing debt and devaluing the dollar so that conservative investing losses money.

[squirell nutkin]

Agreed, but what about the rationalization that the source of all money is the rich, therefore we can't afford to let them fail, where would the money that the hard-working savers save come from?

[Griff]

That is just a rationalization, isn't it? If they are allowed to fail, as opposed to being punished as in confiscatory taxation, their assets become available at a reduced price for someone who may be able to manage them more responsibly.