AXFORD | No more money for struggling companies

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If you took a look at any major newspaper on Monday, you would have seen the headline screaming: “A.I.G. to receive another $30 billion from the government.”

This is, according to a New York Times article, after the government loaned A.I.G. $60 billion and bought $90 billion worth of shares and toxic assets. In total, that’s $150 billion.

That’s for one company in a market that’s supposed to be capitalistic.

Is our government serious? A.I.G. reported a $62 billion dollar loss for the first quarter. This is the most money that a company has ever lost in one quarter, and we’re giving them more? A.I.G. needs to be cut off and allowed to fall to the wayside.

It’s infuriating to watch businessmen who are worth millions get bailed out by Congress while the rest of the country continues to suffer from job loss and poor health care.

When do the American people get their bailout? That $150 billion could have gone to creating new jobs, improving schools and a better health care system. Instead, it’s being funneled into Wall Street.

The government’s reasoning for keeping Wall Street afloat is the fear of economic depression. Companies like A.I.G., Citigroup and Bank of America are so intertwined with their assets that if one goes, they all go.

But isn’t that the point of a free capital market? Every time the government gives more money to these companies, it feels like a slap in the face to the American people.

This handing out of money that we don’t have needs to stop. Yes, we’ve already invested billions into these companies.

But there seems to be no end to these loans and there is certainly no guarantee that we will ever be paid back. I hate to think what would happen if these companies still go under after all these loans.

The aftermath of the bailout is going to change everything. Even if all these companies begin to pick up again and A.I.G. pays back its seemingly never-ending loan, the line that keeps the government out of a free market will have been erased. Suddenly, every major corporation will have the opportunity to ask the government for a handout and point at Wall Street when denied.

With talks of the prospect of a depression, I can see why the government feels it has to save Wall Street. With so much money already vested into these financial companies, everyone wants to see them rebound and pay back their debts.

But at this rate, it seems like a pipe dream and that our money is just burning through the hands of Wall Street big-shots. The ship keeps sinking and this time America may not have a plug big enough to keep it afloat.