I must be missing something?

Your 100% right on.
It's a crying shame that our government has allowed the US economy to be destroyed by buisenesses that are built on a bet without a dime to support them.
AIG was a prime example, They insured investments in a companys even though they knew they could never pay if the companys went under. ,,,,,,,,,,, How is it legal to sell billions of dollars in insurance when you don't have the assets to cover it?
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90% of Wal-Street is a 'Wall-of-Smoke" No money just paper.

That's exactly the problem, all paper, and no real capital.

"It's worth that much because I say it is."

-The Wall St. Brats

The way I understand it is that GM has enough collateral that if the company was divested (assets sold to pay debt) the financiers would not loose their money---BUT--- if the company is divested all the workers WILL loose their jobs and pensioners loose their pensions.
---as for why you can still see GM trucks and GM still be going broke is because contracts GM made with autoworkers and dealers that prevented them form closing plants or lowering pay scale as they lost market share. If it makes you feel better you can blame it all on the executives pay scale, altthough their contract is just as valid as the line workers.

I don't think the line workers are taking home six figures or better...



I was born, and live on the East End of Long Island. For about 300 years, it was mostly middle class, and a great place to live.

Then, all the insanely rich people decided that it was more stylish to live in the Hamptons than just party there.

The jacked up the price of everything with their greed, avarice, self entitlement, and basically "trashed our house". These days the streets and beaches are lined with trash, migrant workers, illegal immigrants, and incredibly overpriced housing. You can't touch a 1/4 acre, and 800 sq. ft. for less than $400,000.

A community that formerly had almost no crime rate, has now sextupled it's local police force ranks in the last 15 years, thanks to the attractiveness of all the wealth and privelege that has come to roost.

In addition, a good bit of the formerly moderate housing has been replaced by ostentatious "McMansions" which have also usurped what used to be corn and potatoes as far as the eye can see, and squander our planet's energy resources with their size and power hungry amenities.

We have a great local bumper sticker:

"NO farms, NO food."

This execessive lifestyle of greed and gluttony that has fiscally evicted at least TWO generations of native islanders, and destroyed a singular environment that should have been preserved, has been glorified in society and on the boob tube as what America should aspire to as an example of ulitimate success.

The only other place on Earth that is similar to our bays and estuaries is in Japan, and all the expensive sod lawns and non-native landscaping now pour nitrates into it.

Their example will destroy this country if allowed to continue on it's destructive path, making the middle class into the poor.

This answer was edited by the_mekanic 178 days ago.

Reason: add