Investors Business Daily via HotAir-
In any real crisis, everyone sacrifices to weather the storm. But the panicky $700 billion bailout that Congress approved for 116 banks in the fall shows an entirely different sense of urgency.
On Sunday, the Associated Press found that $1.6 billion of bailout cash was converted to gravy for 600 bankers. They got bonuses, club dues, financial planners, corporate jet travel, daily limousines and home security systems, courtesy of the taxpayers….
It’s obvious these banker bonuses had no correlation to productivity or performance. In the real world, enterprises provide such benefits only when executives produce results — that is, profits.
On Monday, for example, executives of Caterpillar gave up compensation to ensure that their firm would survive. The banks — especially investment banks — seem to play by different rules.
This is the government equivalent of poor parenting. You teach your children responsibility by allowing them to experience the natural consequences of the decisions they make. Even when…no, especially when those consequences are uncomfortable. A good parent welcomes the opportunities to learn and grow that each failure brings to his or her child. Conversely, the surest route to raising irresponsible, entitled brats is by sparing them the natural consequences of the decisions they make. Fly down in your rescue chopper each time they fail and you will reinforce the notion that, regardless the behavior that wrought the circumstance, there will be a bailout. The above news of the grievous waste of taxpayers’ money is a real world example of large scale “poor parenting.”
Thus, the sound case for government not playing the role of parent to its constituents is argued and won. Our government is an overindulgent and overprotective parent that created the Banker Brats and the Detroit Brats.
Three cheers for the Nanny State.
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