Money.

The more I read about these government bailouts and stimulus packages and such the angrier I get. I am no economics whiz by any stretch of the imagination, and the universe knows I like to spend money, but it seems like the U.S. government is throwing billions and billions of dollars out like some weird, demented lawn sprinkler. The automakers need more, more, more; banks need more, more, more, big businesses that have apparently made bad business decisions needs more, more, more. All of this is the from the fear that if one large bank or auto manufacturer or other large company closes down then the whole big stack of Jenga blocks are going to come crashing down with them.

Perhaps we shouldn’t have built our economy using big Jenga blocks. Sometimes little Lego blocks stick together better.

Now I don’t want to see the U.S. go into a depression. I don’t want people losing their homes, their jobs or everything their life savings as they try to weather out this economic mess. But this money that the government is flinging out all over the place is going to the very people the created the mess in the first place. And where is it coming from? I have always suggested that we just print more money when things got bad, because I obviously have no handle on economics, but when I say that I’m told that you can’t do that because you’re flooding the economy with too much money.

Isn’t that what we are doing with these stimulus packages?

I know we are a big modern society now that thrives on big business and conglomerates and a Wal*Mart (Always White Trash, Always) on every corner. And I know that as a gay man I wouldn’t have the relative freedoms I have to be an outspoken gay man if I didn’t live here and now, but sometimes I really think that the small businesses from yesterday: the mom and pop stores, the small car lot in the village, the neighborhood bank, was a safer investment in our future.

Perhaps if we had stayed within that mindset, we wouldn’t be rewarding the greedy by bailing them out of their own mess.

Now excuse me while I go sock away more money in my mattress.