[citation][nom]AdamB5000[/nom]Tenor is right. You asked a great question. How much worse would it be right now if we had done nothing? Our unemployment rate is still increasing, up to 9.5%. Companies aren't hiring. Meanwhile our tax dollars are helping fund banks and large companies that couldn't turn a profit. We're literally subsidizing what would be dead companies. The stock market is still in the dumper. The price of gas and oil is on the rise again. The public sector (our government) continues to hire and create positions - positions that are paid by the shrinking number of taxpayers. Our taxes are constantly being increased and economists think the answer is to go out and spend our money on that flat screen tv that I cannot afford.Yeah, it's not good. We're taxing ourselves to death. People think we're on the rebound, but I personally think it's gonna get a lot worse."For a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket trying to lift himself up by the handle." -Winston Churchill[/citation]
The banks could very well be bankrupt were it not for the action the govt took, and if you want to see a lousy situation try losing the top 5 lending institutions COMPLETELY and tell me how long your country lasts before total disaster sets in. Crippled banks are better than no banks any day.
Taxes aren't going up unless you already make a lot of money, in that case they are going up by a whopping net 4%... I hope you find a way to keep making your house payments, rich people!
The government isn't employing more people unless there is an express need; in a lot of cases they are cutting just as fast as everyone else in an attempt to stem the impending negative budgets.
I don't think Churchill has any famous quotes about blowhards and hyperbole, but if he did I would conjure one at this point to try to make you understand how off base you are.