Weighing In on the Bailout Plan

On Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the economic bailout bill by a vote of 263-171.

Support for the package is almost evenly split among ChangeWave members surveyed in late September. Forty-eight percent of the 2,347 respondents said they agreed with the bailout, while 45% said they disagreed with it.



Among those in support of the bill, the vast majority said it's necessary to restore stability and confidence in the financial sector.

Here are a handful of representative responses from members in support of the bill:

• TVE94410 writes: "The credit markets are currently frozen, which is causing a multitude of issues. Banks don't want to loan to other banks and financial institutions, causing downgrades in business ratings -- which result in large margin calls. This causes panic in the financial industry, global markets and with consumers. Basically a self-fulfilling prophecy of market failure and potential depression."
  
  
• MAS66713 writes: "Even though I think the individuals responsible for this problem should pay, I feel that if the government doesn't do something now, we will all suffer much more if the financial system fails."
  
  
• FGO47266 writes: "The consequences of leaving the market to figure this out will cause massive swings in the stock market and a lot more job losses. The bailout will, hopefully, make this an orderly transition. The magnitude of the problem seems to be huge, as banks cannot even tell how much of these toxic assets they have. The stimulus package and its spending masked the problem for a while, but it's still there."
  

Many supporters, however, also pointed to the need for additional oversight and regulation to prevent similar reoccurrences in the future.

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As MPO03200 wrote: "The government should preserve the backbone of the financial markets and increase regulations and oversight."

Review additional responses.

Among respondents who said they disagree with the plan, MLE5165 criticized it because there was "no oversight, no accountability and a huge taxpayer-funded transfer of wealth to the very people that created this mess."

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Here are some responses from members who disagree with the bill:

• LEO96014 writes: "We have privatized the gains and socialized the risks. This plan places the risk squarely on the shoulders of the taxpayer and lets the faulty party (the financial institutions) off the hook."
  
  
• GAR97745 writes: "Let the chips fall where they may, and maybe we will learn our lesson. If we keep bailing out poor judgment and poor leadership, we will never learn."
  
  
• HUF09406 writes: "The devil is in the details. The government cannot be a sugar daddy for poor business practices. I fear taxpayers will be stuck with huge debts that are others' responsibility."
  

See more responses from those who disagree with the package.

And others have mixed feelings on the matter.

One respondent doesn't support the plan, but conceded that "it has to be done." Another said there aren't any other viable options.

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The ChangeWave Alliance Research Network is a group of 20,000 highly qualified business, technology and medical professionals -- as well as early adopter consumers -- who work in leading companies of select industries. ChangeWave surveys its Network members weekly on a range of business and consumer topics, and converts the information into a series of proprietary quantitative and qualitative reports.

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