Please consider this quote from a forward
posting to FW in January as an adjunct to my answer to Brad McCormicks message
about Greek politics. To me, it is a classical example of the
"elites" solution to their mistakes and they have the power to
socialize losses in the private sector onto the backs of citizens in the public
sector. It is no wonder citizens of all levels feel disenfranchised by
decisions made by "elites" for their best interests in which others
pay the cost. Would a Basic Income allow citizens to politize enough to
stop these abuses?
"In the end, the IMF is pushing these countries to socialize
the
losses, where the losses to be taken are really the losses of 30
corporations," Mr. Friedberg said in an interview yesterday.
"Suddenly, now the whole country is going to be shouldering those
losses. Aside from a few things that the IMF did that are good --
things like opening up markets, supporting deregulation and
transparency -- the rest of what they're doing is incorrect. They're
pushing the countries into a tremendous contraction. In Korea, the
government was not running a big deficit. It was the private sector
that had all the debt. Now the IMF is coming in and saying the
government is going to have to guarantee the debt of the private
companies in order to obtain more financing. In effect, the taxpayers
of Korea will be paying now for losses on bad investments made by
Citibank and Chase. The intelligent thing to have done would be to
say to the banks: 'You lent the money to these Korean private
companies. If they can't pay, they can't pay. They declare
bankruptcy, you lose money.' "
losses, where the losses to be taken are really the losses of 30
corporations," Mr. Friedberg said in an interview yesterday.
"Suddenly, now the whole country is going to be shouldering those
losses. Aside from a few things that the IMF did that are good --
things like opening up markets, supporting deregulation and
transparency -- the rest of what they're doing is incorrect. They're
pushing the countries into a tremendous contraction. In Korea, the
government was not running a big deficit. It was the private sector
that had all the debt. Now the IMF is coming in and saying the
government is going to have to guarantee the debt of the private
companies in order to obtain more financing. In effect, the taxpayers
of Korea will be paying now for losses on bad investments made by
Citibank and Chase. The intelligent thing to have done would be to
say to the banks: 'You lent the money to these Korean private
companies. If they can't pay, they can't pay. They declare
bankruptcy, you lose money.' "
