Legal Commentary

Bailouts

By Professor University of Miami School of Law

If I were Ford, which has been run soundly enough not to need bailouts, I’d be fairly unhappy about the prospect of $39 billion going to subsidize my improvident and incompetent competitors.

I’m not Ford, and I’m still unhappy about it.

On the other hand, I’m a homeowner but I don’t object to $50 billion going to prop up people who cannot afford their mortgages and have fallen behind on their monthly payments. That’s so even though only some are ‘deserving’: “Many took out loans they were never going to be able to afford, while others have since lost their jobs.”

If there’s going to be a windfall, I’d just as soon it went to people who let the American Dream beguile them into buying modest homes they couldn’t actually afford, whether or not the ultimate blame belongs to them or a fast-talking mortgage broker. Now, if we’re subsidizing folks who traded up to McMansions, on the other hand….

Full post as published by Discourse.net on February 18, 2009 (boomark / email).