The Life Boat Rule

A few weeks ago I analogized that the country was a "ship of state." Now let's go a step further. Maybe the United States is the Titanic. There are several points of synchronicity between the two.
Most importantly the two ships were billed as "too big and powerful to sink." We know what happened to the Titanic.
The Titanic struck an iceberg, which by definition has a lot more mass to worry about that is invisible below the surface than just the portion which you can see above the water. So it is for the mortgage crisis. Every move to solve what can be seen reveals more problems underneath. The problems just get worse, not better. Regardless of the valiant efforts of the crew, the Titanic went down. So it seems is the country.
There are bailouts and subsidies and stimulae. Checks and tax breaks and special loans. Slowly but with all deliberate political speed (that is a confusing concept) the government is trying to secure all the ballast tanks and keep the ship afloat. There are only so many life boats, so much money and debt, that can be made available. So we get to the life boat rule. Who goes first? The women and children. The future of the country. Those that are young and able to row the boats and save the future. Who is eligible? Are we going to make a Swiftian decision, a humane decision or are those who hold on to the vestiges of power, political power, going to shove their way to the front of the line, jump into the boat and leave the rest of us to try and swim in the cold dark waters of the post-mortgage crisis. Are we, like Leonardo DiCarprio, simply going to slip stiffly off the edge of the floating debris to slow drift off into the night? Sphere: Related Content