Who Pays the Price?

Just think for a moment who is paying the price for the financial meltdown in this country?  The Stock Market has rebounded and Wall Street is doing just fine.  No one went to jail for fraudulently selling worthless derivatives, or offering mortgages to people who had no means to pay them back.  The bonus money never stopped even when they were using tax payer dollars to sustain them.  In fact, the rich got richer because they were too big to fail.  So who really paid the price?

Our government had to spend trillions of dollars to avoid a complete financial meltdown of epic proportion.  All of a sudden, deficits did matter and the Republicans who drove up those deficits for years under Bush found religion!  They saw this as an opportunity to finally gut the social safety net of the New Deal and break the backs of the public sector unions all under the guise of government spending being unsustainable.  Not a penny more in taxes would be added because that would hurt the wealthy who benefited the most from this Great Recession.  Without revenue they were able to make cuts to teachers, social workers, law enforcement, and fire departments across this country.  Basically, it was these middle class jobs that got cut first.  Collective bargaining was eliminated in certain states.  It was a dream come true for Republican Governors!

In the private sector, the battle cry was," Just be thankful you have a job!" This crisis was an opportunity to put off  any wage increases for years, hire cheap labor, even get free labor from college interns!  All the while, they were maximizing their profit margins and the CEO's were getting even larger bonuses.  Once again, it was the middle class working stiff who had to be thankful for the crumbs that fell off the table.  While the cost of energy, health insurance, and education increased, salaries remained stagnant, which translates to a loss.  Unions made concessions and took wage freezes to prevent job loses, especially in Detroit.

Finally, services were cut for the poorest of the poor.  Public transportation was cut or the fares increased dramatically.  Rents increased, homes were lost, and jobs were not being created but rather exported to countries with cheap labor.  The private sector increased their profit margins while laying off American workers.  So the answer to the question originally stated is that those people who were least responsible for the calamity, the poor and the middle class, paid dearly for the antics of the financial industry.  The Republican Party continues to protect and defend those people who caused this blight on our country.  Shame on them and anyone who votes for these morally corrupt politicians.  Wake up, America!