Federal Hatcheries Closing?

[Feathers and Fins]

Any large company,heck for that matter small company should have assets for protection. That is good business and business who does not have them and the contingency plan needs to fail.

[Jerry Rapp]

I think we would be in the midst of another Greater Depression right now (maybe over it), if the capitilistic process would have been allowed to occur. 47%+ on govt assistance of some kind now. Instead of soup lines and shanties and people lining up for any work available, we now have food stamps and welfare with enough benefits that they still enjoy a normal to above normal life w/o any desire to find a job. And Micky D employees going on strike for twice the pay. And we are the ones paying for it. "If" those who got bailed out failed, it would have been chaos for a year, maybe two. But FOrd, Toyota, etc would have taken up the slack very quickly. Depositers in financial institutions have a thing called FDIC insurance. Govt would have covered that easily with what they spent on bailouts. For stock market investors, you know going in that there is a risk. That's the game. Now interest rates are being kept artificially low, and sooner or later that bubble has to burst. The free markets should be allowed to function as such, otherwise you have socialism where the government controls most everything. We are about 1/2 way down that path now.

[Old plug]

jerry you need to read up on FDIC. You will find it is not a government office. They are linited in the case of a great depression you might only get back a small portion of your savings.

[Jerry Rapp]

old plug, there are limitations on FDIC, but if you spread your money around it will be covered. You just have to know the rules. As of now, who really cares if it is making .75% or 1.1%? Diversity is good. And the market will tank big time soon. I thought it would have by now, but the $85B in "fake" money keeps the markets moving. Where did the Greece, et all, crisis go? The bubble is getting bigger and bigger.

[Al Agnew]

There's a big difference between bailing out GM and bailing out the big financial institutions. Yes, I think we would have survived if GM had gone under, because as you say the other auto companies would have soon taken up the slack. But the financial institutions were an entirely different animal. It would probably have started a domino effect where the whole financial underpinning of the economy went down the tubes. Or maybe not...like I said, it was impossible to predict because it was so far outside anything that had happened before.

By the way, I suspect the labor unions lobbied hard to bail GM out...and so did the Wall Street lobbyists.

By the way, 47% on some kind of government aid includes lots and lots of people who are retired, disabled, etc. It isn't just lazy people.

Don't get me wrong...I'd be perfectly willing to let the able but lazy people sink or swim on their own. But we've created a monster and now we have it by the tail and don't know how to let go. What are you gonna do with all the kids of those lazy people? Let 'em starve? What do you expect somebody with no marketable job skills and no money to do? I'll tell you what a lot of them will do...they'll turn to crime to live, and crime rates will go through the roof. We've painted ourselves into a corner from which there are only bad ways to escape.

I think you're all being a bit too simplistic. Lazy people? They're on their own. Massive financial institutions? They're on their own. Well...the world is a little more complex and integrated nowadays. There are always consequences, and the consequences tend to affect everybody. They have to be considered. Please believe me when I say that I understand where you're coming from, and I'd love to be able to agree, because...well, that's the way things are supposed to be. But I can't help but see those consequences.

I'm tired of this debate...bowing out now.

[Jerry Rapp]

since it worked in your favor Al, I guess it all worked out for the good for you. Keep making that money in the market, but be sure to cover your hind end. The balloon will bust soon. It should have busted 4 years ago. Fake money only goes so far.

[Justin Spencer]

Anyone with a 401k is most likely to be invested in the stock market, that money invested was not fake and most people who want to some day retire are invested. Those that have lived off the govt probably are not, so while conservatives outwardly like to complain about the bailout, secretly they are glad they get to retire or they neverinvested and will rely on the goverments social security to take them to the big bailout in the sky.

[Wayne SW/MO]

All this is nothing more than beating around the bush. The reason some are "to big to fail" is because there are those whose investments and fortunes depend on the the "too big to fails". it's not just the guy who has made a big salary, it's also big unions with pension money and IOU's, congressman and senators, CEO's and the ever increasing public employees. All this money isn't in piggy banks, it's invested!

When you write an executive order only allowing certain organization members from benefiting from public money you create class warfare between those who can, and those who need to but can't.

This new so called class war is a real no brainer, nothing has changed except the finger pointing. There have always been various levels of haves and have nots and there still is and what has changed is the finger pointing and the New New Deal. The New New Deal is that you give everybody a wonderful life free and clear, but it can't be done because someone else won't pay for it. The ones who won't pay for it are the villains, while the rich, like those in congress with low capital gains taxes laugh all the way to the bank.

Class warfare was the main tenet of Marx and Engels and it has never worked except for a few in power, but it doesn't stop those with some inside tools from pushing it.