To the editor:

How about some good, old-fashioned failure? Instead of rewarding banks that make imprudent loans, car company execs who can’t seem to get it right and consumers who knowingly take out loans they can’t afford, why not let them all fail?

Banks that have made prudent loans will buy the failed banks and profitable car companies will buy the failed ones for pennies on the dollar. Homeowners who entered into loans they couldn’t afford can renegotiate with the new bank owners or avail themselves of the bankruptcy system.

This doesn’t mean all workers will lose their jobs. The failed businesses will surely be reorganized and it does mean that bad execs will be gone, but someone still has to write good mortgages and assemble cars consumers want to buy.

The stimulus plan may or may not work, who knows? But it’s certain we’re saddling future generations with huge debt on a bet, huge debt that in the end may only temporarily prop up failed businesses that will ultimately fail again.

Doug Wahl,
Lawrence