By ROGER BERKOWITZ [Hannah Arendt Center] – It is true that not all wealthy Americans were bailed out. It is not an accident that the protesters aren’t picketing at Apple or Microsoft and they are not picketing Alcoa or Johnson & Johnson. I am sure we can complain about the tax strategies, outsourcing, and off-shore accounts such companies use, but they are running businesses that have not failed. These companies produce products. Their executives live well, often very well, but they don’t ask for bailouts when they lose. Similarly, hedge fund investors did not take bailouts in 2008. These managers should pay income taxes on their income rather than the much lower capital gains rates, and Occupy Wall Street should make this a core of its message. But most hedge fund managers have large parts of their personal fortune in their funds, giving them a huge incentive to manage risk well, and thus distinguishing them from bankers who typically risk only other people’s money. It is a mistake to lump the wealthy into one boat, just as it is a mistake to personally target individuals simply because they are wealthy.
It is also true that many of the so-called 99% are guilty of irresponsibility. Many middle class people bought houses they couldn’t afford, put two gas-guzzling SUVs in the driveways of their McMansions, and sent their kids to private colleges by borrowing upwards of $50,000/year. It is hard to have sympathy for these folks….To bail out all those who are suffering is clearly unfair to those who did not partake in the narcotic of easy credit.
Continued at the Hannah Arendt Center | More Chronicle & Notices.
