The trend these days is to have us, the tax payers, help out some of the biggest companies in the United States that have made some of the biggest mistakes in United States history. Of course the fundamentals of our economy ARE sound as John McCain has said; you can’t just come up with a whole new economic system and the capitalist one has seemed to help us out just a tad. What are not sound are the companies who were foolishly exposed to the sub-prime crisis with no exit plan. Now it’s up to us to save the day…or is it?

                Today the world saw another step by the government into the private sector with the bailout of AIG. This is just one in a series of bailouts including Bear Stearns and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Fed decided to help out sinking AIG with an $85 billion loan to keep it afloat. To keep AIG and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac afloat could get quite expensive, upwards of $285 billion expensive. That number is not something to sneeze at.

                You can’t turn on the TV without hearing about the bailouts and whether or not they are a good idea. Yet nobody is talking about the future. What just happened was the biggest step into the private sector by our government ever. Two of the biggest banks and one of the biggest insurers in the US are now in government control. We have just turned into a socialist country and the first act that the Secretary of Treasury Paulsen did was to remove the CEO of AIG and replace him with one of his own. This simple act may seem right and indeed it might be, but it’s scary to think that Paulsen can steer the way AIG will hopefully recover from this little hiccup they seem to be having.

                And further nobody is talking about how it’s going to affect the young voter. We just added another $285 billion to the national debt that is going to need to be paid somehow. How are we going to afford this bailout is something people have not considered. If AIG recovers strong from its predicament the government will actually gain money, but the chances are against them. This current government, administration included, thinks that we can just write blank checks to help out companies that make bad decisions. What they don’t think of is the future. How are we going to pay this money back and who is going to do it. Well I’m pretty sure that the who is going to be the under thirty group as we see our deficit mount.

                What people have to realize is this might be a short term fix that could give the economy the boost it could need, however this money has to come from somewhere. This is just another example of how Washington thinks of the now and not the future. It’s a sad day when deficit spending coupled with a new socialist government is spawned all within a couple of weeks. Gen X, get prepared to deal with the fallout from these decisions for years to come. The one thing that could save our economy is not a boost in revenue but a cut in spending. Everybody who is knowledgeable in finance realizes this must happen for our government to survive, yet we give boatloads of money to companies that made mistakes and increase the government’s exposure to failure. Most people will be gone by the time this money needs to paid back but yes the under thirty group will be alive and kicking, probably kicking themselves actually for allowing such an event to take place.