[throwaway31338]

The various "bailouts" over the years (2008 financial crisis, COVID stimulus, PPP loan forgiveness, student loan relief) have left me pretty cynical. I paid my bills and didn't get "bailed out". What can I do to profit from this?

[karaterobot]

No kidding, it is dispiriting. You sort of want there to be a little bit of a cost to making irresponsible decisions. In the end, people with access to the same information as you, but who made a more selfish and short-sighted decision, get bailed out—by you, as a matter of fact, as a tax payer. There ought to be an updated parable of the grasshopper and the ants, where the grasshopper has a great time all summer, then gets bailed out in the winter, then has a great time the following summer, and so on indefinitely.

[cooper_ganglia]

I feel the same way with student loans. I'm all for government sponsored state universities to compete with tuition at private universities, but to see people who are my age, in their 20s, complaining is so frustrating. I knew these people as teenagers, and I would ask them what their goal in life was. "To go to college" was a common answer. I'd ask them what about after that, and they didn't know, they just knew they HAD to go to college to get a degree and figure it out. They'd get upset with me if I pushed too hard on trying to ask them about specifics about anything, because they didn't care and didn't want to be bothered with it. They just wanted to hang out, have a good time, and not worry about the future.

My girlfriend in college had no idea how much her student loans were in total, how long they were financed, whether they were private or federal loans, etc. She just let her parents do all the financing work (they couldn't pay for her, but they did all the paperwork for her), and she just struggled with school while going out and drinking every night. Now she's graduated and we've long since parted ways, but she has a Bachelor's Degree yet she's currently working as a dog groomer and refusing to pay her student loans "because the government shouldn't force me to pay, I was only 18".

To see all of these people online now, complaining about how they were "groomed by the banks" to take out student loans drives me crazy. You made a bad decision. Your parents helped you make a bad decision. You need to live with that, and feel some form of "punishment" (in the form of not bailing them out) for not planning better for the future.

[pojzon]

Majority of ppl are inresponsible and short-signed. So ppl who run this brothel have only two options on the table:

- try to save them from their own stupidity

- let the society collapse

We would ofcourse survive the collapse of society but majority of rich and poor ppl would die.

Rich and powerful want to keep the starus quo of power.

So we stay in this limbo of ppl becoming dumber and powerful bailing them out to not lose power.

Pretty simple stuff.

[Salgat]

Some of these "bailouts" make sense. In 2008 these "bailouts" were loans that were paid back in interest. The COVID stimulus was given to everyone below a certain income threshold, so it was effectively a progressive tax cut. The student loan relief is an attempt to fix predatory loans (although it's not a complete solution, it does help though), and while I paid back my loans fully, I don't wish those loans on anyone, especially not those without a high paying job. The PPP loans were very abused, and while they are prosecuting quite a few over it, most of that money is gone forever. The only answer I have for that is not to vote in the politicians who enabled it.

[nickelbob]

Sad that you're getting downvoted. OP's post is essentially "People who made different choices than me should be punished."

[throwaway31338]

Don't want to "punish" anybody. Those bailouts are all over now. I'm just tired of coming out on the losing end and would like to make something from this crisis, versus just paying for it.

[nickelbob]

How sure are you that you were on the losing end? What even is the "losing end" of a bailout?

Rising tides lift all boats. Do you know any people who worked on wall street? Then they were helped by a bailout. Do you know any people who worked with the people who worked on wall street? Then they were helped by a bailout. Etc....

Maybe there's a favorite restaurant of yours that stayed open throughout COVID because of PPP. Or there are people who you know who kept their jobs because of PPP.

Maybe there are favorite products of yours that have been created or will be created by people who were able to start companies after their student loans were forgiven.

My point is that these bailouts aren't only helping the people/companies that were directly impacted - we're all connected so it's rare that helping so many people doesn't indirectly affect you in some way.

[chinchilla2020]

You missed the rent moratorium. My cousin got to live rent free for 18 months.

[tomcar288]

it's not so much about profit. your earnings (taxes you pay) are paying for other people's debt. and if you save up a little cash then you're really screwed because FIAT is loosing 5 to 10% per year: that's what pays for all that deficit spending.

[GaryNumanVevo]

You missed your chance, I fully funded my wife and I's 6-figure salaries for our consulting firm for 2 years with PPP loans that were forgiven.

[petepete]

Buy a nice car from an auction?