The Human Experience

Bailout Debate Speech

2009-11-05T11:14:00.000-08:00

A little over a year ago, this nation faced the worst economic downturn in over 70 years. The events that have unfolded over the past year rival and in some cases surpass those of the Great Depression. The poor economy left millions out of homes, jobs, and money saved. It has forced us to question our morals, values and what and who we are as a nation. The government bailouts to Wall Street and the Auto industry have caused anger and resentment among millions of Americans. Billions of dollars have been and still are being loaned out to companies to prevent them from faltering. Many Americans feel that this money was misused and are asking where their bailout is. Others question the legality and ask is this a capitalist or communist society? These questions will most likely never be answered, however the Government actions taken in 2008 were both essential to the health of our economy and surely without them we would have no economy.

The roots of the problem can be traced back into the previous decade when credit was easy to obtain and banks practically threw loans and mortgages at people who could not afford them. The government actions started in 2007. However the market was still climbing and the Dow Jones closed above 14,000 points on July 19, 2007. On August 7, 2007, less than a month after hitting its all time high, the Dow Jones begins its decent on the tails of slowing home sales and defaulting mortgages

By September 2007 the housing bubble has officially popped and homeowners are defaulting on their mortgages at a rate never seen before and banks struggle to cope with the losses.

Fast forward to March 2008, Bear Sterns fails and is bought by JPMorgan Chase with government backing. Now the floodgates have opened and bank after bank begins to fail. They have no money left and start to run to the government for help.

In September 2008, there is a federal take over of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. This company owned more than $12 trillion in mortgages, which means that one of every two homeowners had a mortgage with them. This causes the credit market to drop even more as easy mortgages are a way of the past. The government takeover stops the practice of subprime loans.

On September 14, 2008 Merill Lynch runs into the arms of Bank of America with government persuasion, effectively saving two of the biggest American banks. One day later the government allows Lehman Brothers to collapse. Over $700 billion of Americans’ money is lost, the majority of that is retirement funds. The government defends is decision citing lack of public funds, and to set an example of Lehman Brothers. There will be no bailout for investment banks.

AIG or American International group is a multifaceted insurance company but also has billions of American dollars invested on citizens’ behalves. On September 17^th the government loans AIG $85 billion to avoid collapse. Without this money, AIG falters and all of its insurances go with it. AIG provides insurance for big loans between banks and other companies. This made American business possible in essence. Without it there would be no Ford cars or trucks on the roads and many products would never have been made. Companies like AIG make lending large amounts of money possible by providing backup for the lending. If a company like Ford were to default on a $30 billion loan, if AIG had backed it, the bank would receive compensation from AIG. Without AIG there is no corporate credit. But many Americans feel that this money was misused, but the original loans given did not carry stipulations and AIG has contract obligations to fulfill to its employees.

Following the AIG bailout, Americans raid the banks, withdrawing over $140 billion in a week from savings, checking and investment funds. The banks now face a liquidity problem. On September 29, 2008 the Dow Jones hits lucky sevens and falls 777 points. This is the largest one-day drop in history.

In October 2008, the government passes several bailout bills totaling trillions of dollars. Most of this is for sucking up toxic loans from banks and to instill hope back into Americans that the banks are safe. The government launches a study to see what banks need money and which ones are too far-gone and decides to loan money under specific terms to Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup as well as many others. Realizing that the problems are not just on Wall Street the Fed also allocates $1.3 trillion for loans to companies outside the financial sector.

The auto industry has taken the hardest hit besides the housing market. Ford, GM and Chrysler request government money to stay afloat. The request brings about the most controversy and people have had enough with loaning out taxpayer’s money to companies who made poor business decisions. However, without a bailout, these companies would fail and take with them hundreds of thousands of jobs. The government has their hands tied and is forced to lend $34 billion to GM and Chrysler and their respective credit companies. It is a choice made for the long term, as the last thing anyone wants to see is more jobs lost.

In all the government has lent out over $2 trillion to companies in the bailouts. That number will continue to rise for several years as the effects of the recession will be felt for years to come. The market has shown signs of stabilization, but unemployment remains high and credit is tight. The government is shifting its focus to providing jobs now, as that is the target of recovery. Many people feel that our lassiez-faire approach would have ultimately readjusted the economy and the recessions and depressions are a way to get rid of the weak. However the relationship between government and business must been seen as one of mother and child. Parents will go to the end of the earth and back for the well being of a child and will provide whatever that child needs to survive and be successful. When emotions are brought into the light, the line of virtue and vice is no longer clear. Yes, the economy would most likely up right itself eventually, but at what cost. It would be at the expensive of millions more homeless and jobless. Families would go hungry and our economy would have digressed several decades. The government bailouts expedited the recovery of the economy and without it; we surely would still be on the downward curve of the recession.

Life

2009-08-21T20:59:00.000-07:00

The biological definition of living is to posses and exert energy in some form. But the phrase “to live” means much more to humans. To live is to experience, to feel, to think, to smell, to taste, to live is so much more than just energy. But only the living can be vulnerable, the dead are always stable. The condition of being human is to be vulnerable. Humans are cautious but reckless, unsure but omniscient, and sad and happy. We as the human race suffer from insecurity. We as a whole do not know our part. In other species such as ants, each individual ant to born to do a job. There is no choice in selection. But humans have choices. Anyone can grow up and be anything. There are no limitations. One would figure that this would make us happy because surely the worker ant cannot be happy knowing he can never move up in ranks. But in fact this only makes us confused. We are constantly questioning ourselves, asking what could have been. It is the human dilemma. Our freedom is actually our slavery. We are chained to the what ifs in life. We all have regrets or things we would like to do over and most of the time these things overshadow our accomplishments. A person can become a very successful family man and ask well what if I stayed in school. Our freedom is our torture in many cases. Humans, though the most evolved species also have the most primitive brains. We do not know what we want. Dogs on the other hand know exactly what they need and try to get it.

We are all born with one brain, two eyes, two ears, one mouth, two hands, ten fingers, two legs and ten toes, but then why are we so different. If we look at every person on the planet, we are all born with all the same parts, (for the most part) but yet not two of us are the same. There are twins that may look the same, but there are not two people that are exactly alike. It is because life is just a series of reactions. We are born with certain characteristics and some likes and dislikes, but most other things are learned. What shapes us are our reactions to events and other people the way we react to our society’s laws and customs and the way we choose to act due to these reactions. Humans are like jello poured into molds. We are molded by our surroundings. Surrounding that for the most part we don’t choose. Think about when we were about to enter school. Is it our choice where we go, who teaches us, or even if we go at all? No it is not. It is our parent’s choice. At perhaps the most impressionable age, we do not choose who we are, that choice is made for us. And for the most part the choice that our parents make is not in their own will either. It will usually revolve around money or jobs. In the end, we nor our parents control who we are because we are shaped by a series of events and reactions to those events to maintain or better the status quoi.

Language

2009-08-21T20:41:00.000-07:00

Language is one of the most defining characteristics of humans. There is no other species on earth that has such a developed communication form as us humans. We have the ability to speak our language orally but also write our language. The written form of language is exclusive to us humans. There is no other species on the planet that can write their language.

There are almost a million words in the English language to date, but only twenty-six letters make up all of those words. But what are words? In essence, they are just groupings of certain letters in a certain order that bring meaning to us. Language is useless without some way to conveying it. Math is worthless without numbers. Words are the visualizations of thoughts.

Language can be considered the greatest evolution ever or the worst. It has enabled us to share our emotions, express our thoughts and explain our ideas. It allows us to record our history, foresee our future and understand our being. Humans are on top of the food chain because of language. When we think about it, humans are one of the most defenseless creatures on the planet. So what allows us to grace the top of the food chain? Our strength is weak compared to other species; we have no attack mechanism such as sharp teeth or a poison. It is our use and development of language that puts us on top. It allows us to coordinate attacks, record previous attempts, write directions, and map out the world. It allows us to share our knowledge with each other. When we look at other species, the individuals of the species do not share information. They act as individuals and act in the best interest of themselves. Some species do work in packs such as lions and wolves, but they do not communicate like humans. When humans came onto this earth, for the first time it was not individuals acting in a group, it was a group acting as an individual. For the first time in the history of the world a species could communicate effectively with each other at a complex level. At first it was simple things like where food and water might be but it soon evolved into sharing thoughts and ideas. Language can be seen as a survival tool because without it, humans certainly would not have survived. The human race is the most evolved species because of our communication. One man can not possibly know everything, but collectively as a species we can know many things. Humans have the ability to specialize and share. This has become one of the most enabling things in evolving. No longer was it just one individual working to better the species, it is several individuals who bring their knowledge together to better the race.

But language can also be considered to be a destroyer. The same ability that has allowed us to evolve is the also the same thing that threatens to destroy our race. Our ability to think and share our ideas has led to disagreement. Disagreements have led to war, which have led to millions and millions of lives lost. Lives lost over how each of us thinks differently and how we each shared that and the fact that we thought that our personal ideas were better than others. In essence the characteristic that separates us from the animals have driven us to become animals. It has taken us to the mindset of a simple animal. The mindset of we see something we want and we take it or we see something we don’t like and we try to get rid of the threat. Wars have been fought over who’s god was better, who is the superior race, who’s history is more prestigious. The route of all wars comes down to a disagreement of ideas. Our country’s own independence was fought over whether or not we should be ruled by a king or by elected president. Two ideas, and a war ensued. The sad fact is that we may be evolved in that we can share our thoughts, but the way we handle our disagreements is still the primitive. We simply try to destroy the opposition.