Main Street Reacts to the Bailout

Clamor and criticism continues to reach policymakers and Wall Street as Congress haggles over a possible $700 billion bailout.

Now chatter surrounding the bailout has reached beyond traditional media and landed on Main Street. New media-type forums, like the blogosphere, are housing strong reactions from people attempting to understand the bailout and its potential impact on taxpayer’s wallets. Everyone has a reaction.

ON MAINSTREET.COM:
Our own poll indicates that almost half, 45%, of concerned MainStreet readers do not think Congress should approve the current bailout, while 35% approve of it and some 20% need more information.

"I think congress should help out every home owner in foreclosure instead of all the fat cats in Washington," writes one reader. "Let the money trickle up instead of down." Another dissenter, has her own message for the U.S. Government, "the greedy idiots and Wall Street":

"No way, Nada, Get Lost, Forget it. Find a way to live on less like those of us who are the ones who keep this country going, and with a shrinking paycheck."

Of course, both sides are heard on MainStreet. "I fear most of us 'Main Streeters' don't comprehend the impact on each of us if this plan is not approved," writes one supporter of the plan. "I say Pass It Now! ROME IS BURNING while the idiot politicians fiddle and posture for reelection."

ELSEWHERE:

Meanwhile, in a weekly Triangle Business Journal (http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/stories/2008/09/29/daily34.html)poll, only 5% of the 716 polled believed folks on Main Street would receive any benefits from the bailout. A reader commented:

This is absolutely a bailout of derivative paper that is worthless. The $700 billion would be better spent buying homes in foreclosures at 60% of value than writing new mortgages with the foreclosed owners and selling those. It would reduce their costs and provide a real product to sell instead of getting saddled with paper that only ever had value in the heads of some greedy people.Given 4% of homes in foreclosure, the $700 billion would probably buy all of them (that's well over an average of $75K/home when many outside of California are only $20K) and begin the much needed reset in home values.