The Economy: Who's our Alexander Hamilton?
I'm taking American History to 1877 this semester, and we recently learned about Alexander Hamilton and the Hamiltonians and all of those lovely people. Alexander Hamilton, in case you didn't know, was basically a dude who's politics revolved around making money for him and his friends (yeah, I know that happens now too, but this was at the beginning of the country, so it stands out more).
For example (also the only one I can remember at the moment), the soldiers at the end of the Revolutionary War were paid in Continentals. There were so many of them, they were pretty much worthless. But speculators bought them up from the poor farmers, who fought in the war and were desperate for money, for a fraction of their worth. And then, knowing this, Alexander Hamilton paid back the national debt (including the Continentals and his rich business friends who loaned the U.S. money during the war), but it wasn't to the men who had fought in the war, it was to the men who took advantage and made them a bundle (paid pennies on the dollar and suddenly a dollar is worth a dollar). He was also big on taxing to get rid of the National Debt (from the war) and I believe that that caused the wiskey rebellion (maybe, I think).
And bailing out all of these businesses reminded me of exactly that. The gov't should just help pay the people who made the investments and shut down the company, that would be better than injecting millions of tax dollars into a failing business. This situation just reminded me of a high ranking gov't offical using there power to look out for their friends, the rich business owners.
For example (also the only one I can remember at the moment), the soldiers at the end of the Revolutionary War were paid in Continentals. There were so many of them, they were pretty much worthless. But speculators bought them up from the poor farmers, who fought in the war and were desperate for money, for a fraction of their worth. And then, knowing this, Alexander Hamilton paid back the national debt (including the Continentals and his rich business friends who loaned the U.S. money during the war), but it wasn't to the men who had fought in the war, it was to the men who took advantage and made them a bundle (paid pennies on the dollar and suddenly a dollar is worth a dollar). He was also big on taxing to get rid of the National Debt (from the war) and I believe that that caused the wiskey rebellion (maybe, I think).
And bailing out all of these businesses reminded me of exactly that. The gov't should just help pay the people who made the investments and shut down the company, that would be better than injecting millions of tax dollars into a failing business. This situation just reminded me of a high ranking gov't offical using there power to look out for their friends, the rich business owners.