No bailout, no how, no way.

Just sent to the Obama campaign and the Senate Banking Committee (both via email):

Please, please, please do not support the bailout. Not for Wall Street. Not for homeowners. Period.

Wall Street, like a delinquent teenager, acts like it’s gotten a new credit card and now expects Mom and Dad to pay the balance. Nope. WS needs to learn responsibility. With risk comes reward, but it also comes…RISK.

I’ve held off on purchasing a home (after selling my last one in 2005) largely because I did the research and understood two facts: 1) homes were overvalued and 2) at my current income, it would be irresponsible to purchase a home that I couldn’t afford. The idea that people who didn’t do their due dilligence will get a handout as a reward for their own irresponsibility is galling to me.

No handout. Period.

Links to people much smarter and more experienced than me who agree:

Raghuram G. Rajan, former chief economist at the International Monetary Fund, says that the Treasury Department’s $700 billion bailout plan is flawed and argues that the private sector needs to step in and help out—or risk a mammoth public backlash.

ALLAN MELTZER, Carnegie Mellon University: It’s a terrible idea. It’s undemocratic. It’s bad economic policy, and it’s bad social policy. And it has a very little chance of solving the problem in a meaningful way.

Please continue to step away from Bush’s desired “panic mode” to really assess what’s needed.

Thanks,
Allison
Los Alamos, NM
Mom to two who’d like to avoid mortgaging their future