Main Street Pans Bailout, Says Bankers Get `What They Deserve'

By Chris Dolmetsch

Sept. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Main Street thinks even less of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout plan than the U.S. House of Representatives, which defeated it yesterday.

``This thing they're talking about is only going to make the rich richer,'' said Paul Clancy, 30, a window washer who for 15 years has scrubbed panes on some of Boston's largest financial edifices. ``Leave them be, and they'll get what they deserve. Nobody helps me if I'm in trouble.''

Congressional leaders may bring up another version of the bailout bill this week. In interviews from Seattle to Wilmington, Delaware, small-business owners, manual laborers and white-collar workers made clear they want the plan killed for good. The bill would allow the government to buy sour investments from financial companies to revive the nation's credit markets.

The plan would benefit ``a bunch of rich good old boys,'' said Seattle bicycle messenger Mark Pilder, 39, on a break from his downtown deliveries. ``They're not going to lose money. They're shifting the burden to taxpayers. The ones actually making the decisions aren't in danger of losing any money.''

Pilder said he may lose business from the global credit crisis because many of his deliveries go to the headquarters of Washington Mutual Inc., which was taken over by the federal government last week in the largest bank failure in U.S. history.

In Wilmington, street vendor Jeff Buckwalter, 55, said he agreed that a bailout is needed but, ``I can't just see giving Wall Street $700 billion.''

Business Slows

Buckwalter, who lives in Landenberg, Pennsylvania, was laid off from his job as a restaurant manager in May as business began to slow. Now he's starting to notice sales dropping at his hot dog cart. One reason: Many customers want to pay with credit cards, and he takes only cash.

The House's 228-205 vote defeated, for now, what would be the biggest government intervention in the markets since the Great Depression. The measure also included provisions to help homeowners avoid mortgage defaults and limit executive compensation at companies that benefit from it.

The bill's $700 billion price tag is ``ghost money,'' said Jay-D Satterwhite, 27, a Waffle House cook in Greensboro, North Carolina, as he sliced onions after the congressional vote. ``Basically, money that nobody can really see.''

Arguments from President George W. Bush and top Democrats that the bill is aimed at helping Main Street as much as Wall Street have made headway in some quarters.

``It will stabilize us,'' said Crystal Royal, a 40-year-old human-resources worker in Houston. ``Where we're going now, I'm looking at another 1920s depression. It won't make this huge impact, but it will stabilize us to where we can begin to recover.''

Poll Finds Disapproval

Royal's reaction contrasts with the results of a Bloomberg/Los Angeles Times poll released last week. By a margin of 55 percent to 31 percent, Americans said it's not the government's responsibility to bail out private companies with taxpayer dollars, even if their collapse could damage the economy.

``I wouldn't do anything for Wall Street, nothing, except maybe a deal for people who are having trouble with their mortgages,'' said Clancy, the Boston window washer.

Randy Gautier, 54, an information-technology manager at Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, said he expects taxes to rise if a version of the plan passes.

``It's unfair, especially if it's going to cost the regular taxpayers more money,'' said Barbara McDonald, 44, a project analyst at Harris Bank in Chicago, expressing astonishment at the $700 billion cost. ``I don't think the average taxpayer is prepared for that.''

`Too Socialistic'

Marc Granovitz, the owner of a flower wholesaler in the Los Angeles suburb of Lawndale, said he feels like he has to trust Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and other ``guys who have lived their life studying things.'' Yet the proposed solution makes him uneasy.

``It's a little bit too socialistic for my tastes, and that's my fear,'' Granowitz, 57, said in a telephone interview. ``It's very disconcerting.''

Denver travel account manager Christine Collins said she would like the private sector to be given more time to rectify the situation before the government intervenes.

``I'd rather do almost anything than have the government take over,'' said Collins, 57. ``Government and big business are already in bed together. It's bad enough as it is. The federal government has not proven itself to be a great money manager.''

To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Dolmetsch in New York at cdolmetsch@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: September 30, 2008 00:00 EDT

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