FOLLOWING ICELAND

"They don't have our trust and they are no longer legitimate."

This is elsewhere on the internet, but I wanted to post it here to give it the most exposure I can. Email this around if you want as well, better that more people hear about this. That's where I got it; an email from my brother, although it's from Barry Ritholtz' The Big Picture blog originally:

If we add in the Citi bailout, the total cost now exceeds $4.6165 trillion dollars. People have a hard time conceptualizing very large numbers, so let's give this some context. The current Credit Crisis bailout is now the largest outlay In American history.

Jim Bianco of Bianco Research crunched the inflation adjusted numbers. The bailout has cost more than all of these big budget government expenditures – combined:

• Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion
• Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion
• Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion
• S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion
• Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion
• The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)
• Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551b, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion
• Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion
• NASA: Cost: $416.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billion

TOTAL: $3.92 trillion

People complained about the expense of the Iraq invasion and war, people have pointed to the vast cost - particularly when adjusted for inflation - of endeavors such as the Marshall plan to rebuild war-ravaged Europe after WW2. People have complained about the expense of the New Deal and other costs. But all of these combined with more besides do not add up to as much of an expense as all of these bailouts.

Need that to be brought down a little closer to home, a smaller number? How about more than $24,000 per person in America - man, woman, child, of all ages, everywhere, every single person. That's how much they're costing you. If it wasn't for the price of gas dropping in half, we'd already be in a horrific recession or worse.

What, exactly, does the dollar become worth when the government just invents some to throw at big business? What is the point of bankruptcy laws if you can just ignore good business sense, careful use of resources, and wise financial policy because you know the government will just make it all okay with magical bailout money which didn't exist a few years ago?

I know of no one who likes these bailouts except congressmen who get kickbacks from these businesses in the form of campaign contributions, and the overpaid CEOs who cratered these companies to begin with. Oh, and the unions. That's who is being helped out with auto bailouts: the unions whose contracts destroyed the companies to begin with. This is an effort to, temporarily at least, let the unions keep going. When the companies they disease and destroy like a virus die, they die as well: no jobs no auto union if the automakers collapse.

You can bet that whoever took over the auto making in the US wouldn't sign the same godawful, suicidal contracts. This is a deliberate attempt to prevent these companies from suffering the consequences of their poor judgement and actions, and the unions from the same.

What should our response be? Well, along with trying to find a job when the dollar drops to a fraction of its present worth, other than trying to find a way to feed our families and find clothing and houses, we should utterly gut the present government. It is abundantly plain that nobody in office is worthy of retaining their job. None of them. We need to take Iceland's approach:

Thousands of Icelanders have demonstrated in Reykjavik to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Geir Haarde and Central Bank governor David Oddsson, for failing to stop the country's financial meltdown.
It was the latest in a series of protests in the capital since October's banking collapse crippled the island's economy. At least five people were injured and Hordur Torfason, a well-known singer in Iceland and the main organiser of the protests, said the protests would continue until the government stepped down.

As crowds gathered in the drizzle before the Althing, the Icelandic parliament, on Saturday, Mr Torfason said: "They don't have our trust and they are no longer legitimate."

The value of the Icelandic krona has been cut in half since January.

Thousands of people have vowed to keep protesting every day until the government resigns. We need to step up and make that happen here, and combine that with a complete overturn of every single politician in Washington, doing so until they start to listen again. The federal government has demonstrated its self to be wholly unworthy of power, unwise with its money, and undeserving of office - in both parties - and they are absolutely taking the wrong path in this financially troubled time with your money.

All those calls for fiscal responsibility, all those demands for cutting spending, all the concern over debt and overspending have suddenly vanished. We as a people have lost control over our government and it is time that was reversed. Small wonder gun ownership has skyrocketed.

Need more reason? Comprehensive Immigration Reform (amnesty) is coming back, despite incredibly loud, wide spread and party-boundary ignoring opposition by the public. Courtesy Senator McCain and the Democrats.

Seriously what, exactly does congress have to do before people get rid of them all? They are not really to blame, when it comes down to it. When we are in a democracy, we are to blame for our government. You and I. When it comes time to vote, will you yank that lever for the same bum as last time, again? Will you keep sending the scum who does this to power over and over?

What will it take?

And who among us will step up, finally, to take their place? When will reasonable, decent citizens run for office once more, gifted folks who set aside their regular life temporarily to serve the people? Who will show the leadership to set this ship on course before it hits that iceberg?