Bailout or rescue? That question determined the fate of a $700 billion plan to stabilize the nation's economy. On Monday, the plan faced criticism as a bailout of Wall Street and met a surprising defeat in the House. The Dow fell 777 points. "... The information given on TV and the radio was couched in such a way as to look like the banks and CEO's were getting all the benefits," Nancy McGrew of Garner wrote via e-mail. "That is why there was so much anger among the people. ... If it were put in a way to make it seem like it was helping the lower and middle class, it might have been different." As more folks described the legislation as a rescue plan, the debate changed. A revised plan passed Congress on Friday.

Rescue: We're on this leaky ship together

If a cruise ship were sinking, no one would think to ask: Should we save the ship and, in turn, save the owners millions of dollars? We don't ask that question because we know it is the best interest of the thousands of passengers, their families and friends aboard that ship to do whatever is deemed necessary to stabilize the ship and rescue the passengers.

The same can be said for the current credit crisis on Wall Street. The banks and investment houses are now sinking because those who were at the helm steered their ships into dangerous and unchartered waters. But we, the entire American public, are their passengers. If Congress does not act to provide the capital necessary to stabilize these imperiled ships, most of us will be in the water with even more challenges.

There is no question that our economic system has hit an iceberg. The creation of under-regulated financial institutions such as hedge funds and poorly regulated lending practices has taken us to the brink of financial chaos and disaster. This, however, is not the time to be concerned about whether to rescue or not. Saving these financial institutions, and even rescuing their greedy helmsmen, is necessary to save millions of passengers, the American citizenry.

Once everyone is safe, we can begin to build a system with regulations and oversight. Once everyone is safe, we can begin to punish the greedy captains of these endangered ships and ensure no one will navigate there again.

Don Namm, Chatham County

Bailout: This plan rewards the reckless

The proposed bailout is an obscene transfer of wealth from taxpayers to those who made bad decisions, and it won't work.

We've already wasted trillions of dollars on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, AIG and the alphabet soup of Federal Reserve lending facilities, and things are getting worse. Just this week Fed chairman Ben Bernanke pumped an additional $630 billion into the global financial system. What makes us think that spending $700-plus billion more will work?

I agree that the situation is dire and that action is necessary, but this is the wrong plan and the wrong team.

Ben Bernanke and Henry Paulson have contributed to our problems and have actually made them worse. They haven't even been right on the diagnosis of the problem. In 2007, Secretary Paulson assured us that the subprime problem was "contained," and in July of this year he said that Fannie and Freddie were "well-capitalized."

There is a solution to our problems. Pain is unavoidable at this juncture, but we just may be able to avert a serious depression.

First, we must return to honesty and transparency on our balance sheets. The reason there is so little lending is because institutions don't trust each other. We also need to de-leverage and end the debt binge. We need to know which companies are healthy and which are insolvent.

If we persist with bailouts we'll destroy the dollar's value, crowd out desperately needed private investment and increase the cost of living for all Americans.

David H. Williams, Raleigh

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