Laughing all the way to the bank

hSo Wells Fargo beat Citigroup to the punch and bought Wachovia, all without the help of Uncle Sucker. Ha, ha, ha. I'm sure that Citigroup was sure that the government was Uncle Chump (and they are) and would do anything not to have another financial institution go under, meanwhile, in the marketplace, Wells used their own money and bought them outright.

That's the free market, and sometimes, it works. Of course if the government continues to reward the fat cats who were the idiots that got us into this mess, then why not take stupid risks?

I was channel surfing the other night and Fox News had some Bettman Archive footage on, and I paused because I love that stuff, and learned that although it seemed that Roosevelt saved the US during the depression actually, in the world according to Fox, he and the democrats set the economy back at least two years. (Or something like that, I got disgusted and turned the channel.)

James and I were discussing some social ideas at the dinner table. If you (I) were in charge of the world, how would you handle the issue of Welfare, the unemployed and the impoverished? (This should give you insight into our marriage, we actually talk about stuff like this.)

I hate Welfare as an entitlement because it seems to sap initiative from the people who are on it. It's not really enough to allow a family to live well, but it's too much to incent the head of that family to go out into the workforce. Welfare also does nothing to prepare its recipients to move from Welfare to work. Why should I give up food, housing, a stipend, health care and free child care to work at Burger Circus, especially when I lose my health benefits? See, no incentive.

I believe that everyone is entitled to education, health care and a safety net in case of financial disaster. That's what Welfare should be, a safety net, not a way of life. If an able bodied person gets a government subsidy, then that person should work. Even if it's in a make work program like the WPA. We got some really nice stuff out of the WPA. My high school was built as a WPA project. Hoover Dam. TVA. Some great art. Between the CCC and the WPA this country got real pretty and electrified.

James brought up the workhouse in England, I mentioned The Great Chain of Being, and we decided that if there were people out there who just refused to work, we shouldn't let them die, but the accommodations wouldn't be so great and neither would the food. James stops short of the Sheriff Joe Arroyo plan of pink underwear, tents in the desert and bologna sandwiches breakfast, lunch and dinner. More like a cot and school lunch. You won't die, but you might want to.

So, we've got corporate Welfare, where if the government bails out the big, corporate interests, they have no incentive to do a good job, and we've got individual Welfare, where the recipients have no incentive to do any kind of job. Good times. Good Times.