As the economic situation grows more dire and leaders of various national governments try a bunch of different strategies to lift us out of this quagmire, one line I hear again and again in the mainstream media is that we can't allow the likes of AIG to fail. If AIG fails, all hell will break loose, they tell us.
Here's what I want to know: What would actually happen if we allowed AIG to go belly up? If any reader has any idea of the consequences, I'd be more than happy to hear it.
I find it strange that capitalism is supposed to be about the vaunted "free market" system, yet it is the capitalists themselves who are championing government intervention, the so-called bane of free market policy. Isn't this a bit of a contradiction?
When these sorts of problems befell the average consumer, small business or family farmers, we're told that such people need to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. The capitalists will yawn and say, "You've got to learn to sink or swim." If you can't cut it, then the free market system dictates that you will [financially] die.
Yet, when the captains of commerce run into these same kinds of problems, the aforementioned mentality is swept out the door. No longer is it an individual problem; it becomes a community problem in which we're all equally compelled to pull on the bootstrap. It's no longer a question of the individual firm learning to sink or swim, it's the entire economy.
Here's what I want to know: What would actually happen if we allowed AIG to go belly up? If any reader has any idea of the consequences, I'd be more than happy to hear it.
I find it strange that capitalism is supposed to be about the vaunted "free market" system, yet it is the capitalists themselves who are championing government intervention, the so-called bane of free market policy. Isn't this a bit of a contradiction?
When these sorts of problems befell the average consumer, small business or family farmers, we're told that such people need to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. The capitalists will yawn and say, "You've got to learn to sink or swim." If you can't cut it, then the free market system dictates that you will [financially] die.
Yet, when the captains of commerce run into these same kinds of problems, the aforementioned mentality is swept out the door. No longer is it an individual problem; it becomes a community problem in which we're all equally compelled to pull on the bootstrap. It's no longer a question of the individual firm learning to sink or swim, it's the entire economy.
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