Where do you get in line for a bailout?

I hope I don’t need one of those, but just in case things get worse I’d like to know what the criteria are for the government to make my mistakes go away and my economic aches and pains get better. All this time I thought the capitalistic system of risk and reward was the rule in the United States and those who took the risks — invested capital in a good idea — would be rewarded. Conversely, those who took risks and failed would, well, fail.

I even joined a political party when I was old enough to vote that preached those tenets. Today, however, the Republican Party, which was my home for close to 40 years, has finally become not only the party of intrusive government but also the party of big and expensive government. What happened?

It has barely been eight years since President Clinton left office, leaving our country free of deficits and well on its way to paying down or off our national debt. Today, we face trillions of dollars of new debt and who knows when that number will stop growing, with the next bailout just around the corner. And that could be another trillion dollars or so. Pretty soon that can add up to a lot of money.

I do not dispute the need for the government to jump into the middle of an economic crash-and-burn scenario. I accept the fact that if something wasn’t done to stave off bankruptcy for the companies that financed half the country’s mortgages, worse news would be coming. What I dispute is the need for any of this to have had to happen. And I dispute the nuts on cable and other news programs who are placing blame everywhere but where it belongs.

We live in a global society and take part in a global economy. That is clear. What happens here affects people over there and vice versa. I get that.

What I don’t get is why when the worst happens, when the inevitable results in the kind of pain we are just starting to experience, and when what has been clear to all who have watched actually comes true, why is it that the people in this country are so willing to forgive and forget?

What I mean is, why are we so willing to forgive our leaders for letting us get into this mess and so eager to forget that we are the people who put them there? Why are we so eager to forgive those who make mistakes with our hard-earned money and then forget that they lost our 401(k)s, our American dreams and our confidence that made America so different from most other places? And why are we so willing to forgive those who told us all was well when it wasn’t and forget that we are the people who forced them to lie to us lest we fail to return them to office?

The fact is that the voters in this country are almost as culpable as the elected leaders who led us down the primrose path full of economic thorns. We claim to revere the capitalistic system, but we are quick to cry out when the inevitable excesses that result from a failure of government oversight lead to the kind of collapses we are experiencing. We vote time and again for an ideology that says whatever the market wants, the market gets and then, when the market fails us because we failed to watch those people in charge of our money, we think about doing the same thing again!

This is not a political column. I still don’t know for whom I will vote this fall. But, what I do know is that people who tell me the marketplace will take care of itself and then can’t wait to use government to bail out the risk takers — the ones who lost my money and yours — with my tax dollars, are people who should not be in charge of anything.

If we are a capitalistic system that believes the marketplace cures all, then keep our government’s hands off our money and let those who took the risk and failed do just that. If, however, you believe that capitalism is good but that greedy capitalists are bad and should be watched, then we must elect people who don’t turn their backs on the kind of oversight rules and regulations that were designed to protect us from exactly what is happening. Instead, we elect people with an attitude that ignores the inevitability of greed-led destruction, and now we are shocked when we fall victim to that excess.

How stupid can we get?

So here’s the next test.

I, like millions of other Americans, am not immune to the destructive nature of what is happening right now. I could be looking for a job unless the American people throw all the bums out, get some new bums with brains instead of ideology, and start us down a path to economic fiscal sanity. But, just in case, I have found my dream job.

Now that the government effectively owns AIG — with our 85 billion dollars and counting — and now that the government has decided to go into competition with private enterprise — now there is a Republican anathema — I am sure there will be a top job available. It will pay far more than a GS-15 or whatever the top federal job classification is — probably dozens of millions of dollars more — and it will come with the government’s vaunted retirement plan and health care program.

The best part is the working hours. Nine to five Monday through Friday, weekends off and more holidays and vacations than you can possibly imagine.

If I don’t get a bailout like the big guys, I will settle for that job. Of course, I can’t guarantee I won’t lose any money.

Only the taxpayers can do that. Ain’t that the truth.

Brian Greenspun is editor of the Las Vegas Sun.