Non-Scientific Consensus: Everyone Sick of Bailouts

I was reading the Huffington Post this afternoon while taking a break from writing some essays when I came across a story labelled "Comedy" on their front page. The story was about the latest episode of The Simpsons getting in on the mocking. (Image: Huffington Post) After seeing this, and watching CNN for 20 minutes, it became pretty clear to me that this is a growing consensus. During the span of 20 minutes, Wolf Blitzer hit on bailout related stories 5 times.

Here's an image, via the Huffington Post, of The Simpsons bailout-mocking during the traditional chalkboard scene of the shows' opening:

For those of you, like me until 2 weeks ago, who don't know what "TARP" stands for, it's the first financial bailout called the "Troubled Asset Relief Program." The bill, a holdover from the last administration, paid hundreds of billions to banks to try to prop them up and restart the flow of money lending.

Needless to say, it hasn't worked so far. So, more and more often, we hear jokes about the irresponsibility of bailouts and feel that government is protecting the rich as everyone else suffers. Bailouts might be needed to protect our money and investments from completely disappearing as banks collapse, but I think more has to be done now to help everyone.

(And no, to my right-wing readers, tax breaks are not the solution. Especially for the relatively unaffected rich.)