And, to be quite frank? I'm starting to think the American people don't give a damn.
Yes, I'm still on SVB but this is less anger and more just outright annoyance, I guess? Not so much what the American government did (we knew they weren't going to leave them to their own devices while constantly poo-pooing anyone asking for aid) but more that line of thinking in the title.
"But it's not really a bailout, though!"
I call this a distinction without a difference because, while the outcome may not be a bailout (certainly not buying into the line of it not being passed onto the taxpayers) the intention is what matters in the equation. In a world where the American people have to listen to politicians debate at length for months (sometimes years) about what their constituents deserve from the services that they've paid into over the years, these same people watched the American government, almost unilaterally, reach a consensus within 24 hours to make already wealth depositors whole. Even after many of these depositors are the ones that triggered the bank run and potential collapse in the first place.
THAT is what matters.
In a world where welfare is a bad word, where politicians actually PRAISE not giving aid that was already paid out (from the state and federal government) to see them come together for this?
In a world where student debt relief is also 'not a bailout'; it's quite literally the federal government wiping away a debt and we had to watch the pearl clutching of politicians claiming that we're selfish for asking for relief. In a world where a global f**ing pandemic ravaged (and still ravages) the world, a couple of pennies sent out to keep us housed and fed so we're not throwing our lives away for the machine of capitalism is seen as doing too much to compete with poverty wages. This is a bailout. Not in technical terms; but it's effectively a bailout. Stop the bullsht hand-wringing and call it what it actually is.