mrs. awesometastic

My wife is brilliant. And in accordance she had a brilliant insight that she shared with me this evening regarding the bank bailout bill. It was so cleverly simple that I'm frankly surprised that I haven't come across the concept yet. Don't get me wrong. Someone has probably had the idea already. I just haven't seen it. And judging by my readership (I make the AJC look good), I'm not likely to be pointed in the right direction.

Her concept is simple. And in her usual fashion, you get to use your imagination. And I'll probably expand on her ideas just to make it an interesting enough read. It was elegant for a short conversation analogy but I like to write and you just have to deal with that.

Imagine that you are a pioneer in the wild west, headed out to develop unchartered territory in America's frontier. Maybe you set up the beginning of Helena, Montana or some similar city. She can't hide her preferences for her home state. Can't necessarily blame her if you've ever been there.

Anyhow, here you are with a bunch of other good people (about 100 of you), wanting to organize and essentially create order. To do that, you have the uncomfortable job of allowing one or more of your citizens to enforce the orderly conduct. You're creating a government. But these are good Americans and they have learned from the successes of their kindred nationals and go about the process in a well natured, democratic process. They vote. And you end up getting elected mayor and another guy becomes sheriff. If that's sexist of me, you can substitute a minority, trans-gendered, bisexual midget for one or more of those characters. Yes, even you can be a minority, trans-gendered, bisexual midget in your imagination. And in real life if you're flush with cash and have a good plastic surgeon. Anyhow...

Things go well for a while. The town has a booming copper business. Farmers are growing crops and livestock. Bartenders are tending bar. Undertakers are undertaking. Butchers are butching.

And the bank is banking. And the bank starts doing poorly. They're in real trouble. We won't get into why, it's redundant to the point. (But, perhaps a lot people aren't fond of the fact that the banker has only been loaning to the people that own businesses or farms. They want loans to maybe buy houses, start their own farm, whatever. So they get the mayor to strong arm the banker into loaning to these people. And he does so reluctantly. yada yada yada) Anyhow, like I said, doesn't matter, the bank is just in the toilet.

So, you the mayor, being the good steward of the citizen's power, meet with the banker and he could get right back on top if he just had a little cash. So, you and some friends come up with a plan that if everyone in town just chips in $20 a piece, the bank would be A-okay.

Would you ask them for it?