I’m a cynic. I don’t have a lot of faith in humankind, and it’s noticeable to people who spend a sufficient amount of time with me.* People often say things to me like, “Damn you’re cynical!” and “You are also a complete jackass.”
Cynicism is a very easy hobby, especially when it comes to politics. Now, I love Democracy. It has many advantages over, say, a totalitarian dictatorship, unless you happen to be the little crazy dude with the big glasses and weird hair who inexplicably has all the power. But even so, I’m not too impressed with most of Democracy’s participants. I’m not talking about the politicians. I’m talking about the voting public.
A lot of them can’t even be bothered to vote, and of those who do, most would rather believe the politicians, pundits, and campaign ads, than research the issues themselves. As my high school history teacher put it, in her wise, thoughtful way, “The masses are asses.”
Naturally, as an elitist jerk, I do not include myself in this criticism. Or you, because you are reading my blog.
Consider TARP. TARP is very unpopular with voters, and Republicans are attacking Democrats for voting for a massive bailout of Wall Street that didn’t make the economy better. And they’re not interested in information to the contrary, according to this Bloomberg story, “TARP a `Four-Letter-Word’ for Voters Even as Cost Drops.”
Most people seem to believe that TARP is an example of Obama’s free-spending, socialist ways. But, if they’d been paying attention in 2008,** they’d remember it was passed with bipartisan support and was signed into law by President Bush.
They also believe it cost 700 billion dollars. Only half of that figure was spent, and of that, most has been repaid with interest. The current “cost” of the program is about $50 billion dollars, and that’s likely to shrink as repayment continues. They’d know that if they read the news, much.
People also seem to think that TARP was just a bailout for big Wall Street banks, and that we should have let those banks fail. But where do these people keep their money? Under a mattress? In a cookie jar? Inside the big freezer in the basement, with grandpa’s frozen corpse? Call me a freak — I keep my money in a bank!
Now, I’m no economist, but I know that banks are all inter-connected by debt. If a handful of the largest banks had gone under, it could have triggered a collapse of the banking industry. What kind of economic crisis would we have had if individuals and businesses across the country suddenly found that their banks, and their accounts, had disappeared?
The government insures those accounts, of course. But as distasteful as loaning money to big banks might be, replenishing the bank accounts of millions of Americans would have been a lot more expensive. And insurance only covers the first $250,000. A lot of wealth would have simply disappeared.
It’s true that TARP has partially failed at its other goal, to get banks to start lending money freely, again. But there are a lot of reasons for that. To me, TARP is a rare, Washington success story: bi-partisan legislation that appears to have accomplished most of its goals and cost relatively little.
Fortunately for my cynicism, it appears most voters don’t know, and don’t want to know.
* Sufficient = 90 seconds.
** Just kidding. I used Google.
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The last US combat brigade leaves Iraq today (