The stock market is fatally flawed. Usually, everything works. But everything works on questionable business practices and sketchy trading. These practices build up until people are basically trading imaginary money. Occasionally this comes up and bites them squarely in the ass. We saw it in the crash of 1929, the S&L crisis of the 70s, many smaller failures, and right now.
A full-on crash can't be all bad. Maybe if the market is allowed to crash and burn, from the ashes will come a better way to conduct business. Maybe people will realize that the stock market isn't a safe place. Maybe, just maybe, real money will become more important that made-up pieces of a company.
Of course, this is going to hurt. The collapse of the investment sector will bring on hardships for everyone. But the current status quo can't continue forever. Every time the market starts to implode, the government slaps a band-aid on it for fear of another Great Depression. But we must remember that the Great Depression came from too many people buying things they couldn't afford. The system isn't working. We must either fundamentally change it, or scrap it altogether.
I know I'm supposed to be liberal and all for government intervention, but I think I have to go with the republicans on this one. Yes, it will hurt. Maybe there will be another Depression. But isn't there a possibility that we'll come out of it better than before?
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