We May Lose even if We Win

I’m the first to admit that I don’t fully understand the economy. I content myself with the knowledge that no one else does, either. There are simply too many millions of people making too many millions of decisions for anyone to claim, reasonably, that they know what’s going on.

That’s why the bailout which Washington has recently enacted makes little sense. I realize that the mortgage industry is a significant part of our economy; surely, though, it is not the totality of it. Why should anyone think that one part no matter how important steers the entire ship?

I mean, it’s not as though there’s a steering wheel and a rudder and Polaris as guides and tools. What I want is what I want and not necessarily what my neighbor desires; likewise, what is bad for me is not necessarily bad for him. Even in times where more bad things are happening (or are threatened to happen, as may or may not be the case with mortgages) there are green lights and opportunities for others not directly affected. To react in such a massive and intrusive way seems to me an attempt, however well intentioned, to tie the unharmed and unhurt to the mast of the ship of those in danger. Toss in the fact that many are in danger because of their own devices and we are faced with a very real moral dilemma: why ought the innocent prop up the guilty?

Yet I see today that many nations are following suit in what one wag called ‘a concerted global effort to stop’ a disaster. All we little people can do now is hope that it works, and hope that the respective governments back off when it does.

I’m afraid that they won’t. I’m afraid that it’s only one step closer to the small world. One step closer to a loss of sovereignty.

One step closer to the stifling of human liberty.