In all fairness though, those industry bailouts were generally recovered
Early estimates for the bailout’s risk cost were as much as $700 billion; however, TARP recovered $441.7 billion from $426.4 billion invested, earning a $15.3 billion profit (an annualized rate of return of 0.6%), which may have been a loss when adjusted for inflation
Ok, that last part about still being a net loss after inflation is fair, but we’re talking about a possible rounding error here, not a 12-figure loss for the Treasury.
It should be considered that America is investing in its infrastructure by making sure that its educated population of professionals and pre-professionals is able to find suitable work and stable living conditions debt-free. Instead of that, we have a severe lack of foundational jobs for the educated (unless you’re an overpaid nurse or engineer that will always be in demand), exacerbated cost of living, and foreign students taking away competitive education seats from American students. Everything has been one big sellout to the wealthy, domestic or otherwise, while average Americans and their students suffer. Student debt forgiveness isn’t a metric designed to be measured by a sum of money arbitrarily gained in return after investing, it’s an investment in the wellbeing of its society and its people.
Also auto industry and farmer bailouts seems like a sensible thing considering how many jobs are tied there. Dunno if this sub would have preferred them to go under and those people be out of job, dunno.
Food will always be in demand, so a slight change in supply can have a huge impact on price. Imagine a ton of farmers going under and far less interested in taking over producing the crops/livestock that were ending up in our stores. Even if you don’t work in agriculture or food processing or whatever, you’d still be severely affected.
In all fairness though, those industry bailouts were generally recovered
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergency_Economic_Stabilization_Act_of_2008
Ok, that last part about still being a net loss after inflation is fair, but we’re talking about a possible rounding error here, not a 12-figure loss for the Treasury.
It should be considered that America is investing in its infrastructure by making sure that its educated population of professionals and pre-professionals is able to find suitable work and stable living conditions debt-free. Instead of that, we have a severe lack of foundational jobs for the educated (unless you’re an overpaid nurse or engineer that will always be in demand), exacerbated cost of living, and foreign students taking away competitive education seats from American students. Everything has been one big sellout to the wealthy, domestic or otherwise, while average Americans and their students suffer. Student debt forgiveness isn’t a metric designed to be measured by a sum of money arbitrarily gained in return after investing, it’s an investment in the wellbeing of its society and its people.
No arguments there… But the 2008 bailouts are severely misunderstood.
Also auto industry and farmer bailouts seems like a sensible thing considering how many jobs are tied there. Dunno if this sub would have preferred them to go under and those people be out of job, dunno.
Food will always be in demand, so a slight change in supply can have a huge impact on price. Imagine a ton of farmers going under and far less interested in taking over producing the crops/livestock that were ending up in our stores. Even if you don’t work in agriculture or food processing or whatever, you’d still be severely affected.