Over the past few months we have heard a lot about the government bailouts. People have come down on both sides for and against it and few truly understand where we stand on what to gain or lose from it.

People have complained that government bailouts don’t work and that we should not be helping financial institutions that got us into this mess to start with. Others argue that without these bailouts, the economy would fall into a deeper, darker state.

Let’s take a look at the bailouts and how they’ve been carried out.

Let’s begin by saying that no one is perfect and no plan is perfect. We all have our faults and just like that, this bailout has its pros and cons and has made a lot of mistakes. These bailouts have helped keep millions in their jobs.

Thousands ‘- who worked at financial institutions that did nothing wrong ‘- were at risk of losing their jobs, and if the government did not do anything, they would have lost their jobs, furthering the impact of this recession.

The consequences for doing nothing outweighed the reasons to do it, and now the government has a lot to gain. The government decided to buy a larger stake in Citigroup in March when the price of the stock was about $1.

At the close of the market on Monday, shares of Citigroup were at $3.20. That’s more than a 300 percent increase in price over the past few months. That means if the government bought $300 billion worth of stock in March, the government is now making more than $600 billion in profit. With the government’s deficit and the national debt skyrocketing, it is money that can come in handy not only for the government but also for the taxpayers who are paying for these bailouts.

The fact is that we the people are helping out other people to prevent mass chaos. We the taxpayers have helped avoid disaster and helped keep millions of people employed.

The consequences both financially and to our country would have been catastrophically worse. By millions losing their jobs, our country would have been propelled into a deeper recession that would have lasted years and cost trillions of more dollars.

I will be the first to agree that parts of the bailout haven’t worked and should be reformed to better suit the public. For example, executives of companies who received the most bailout money should have been replaced for better management and should have been made to pay fines.

The fact is that companies still have the executives that led them into this mess and they should be replaced by more competent leadership. Our tax dollars are being poured into companies ‘- like Citigroup, amongst others ‘- and we should have a say as shareholders in how the companies are run. These executives aren’t doing their job and they should be replaced.

Trillions of our tax dollars are being put into companies with the possibility of the government making trillions in profit. Money is also being poured into infrastructure development. There are thousands of miles of trains and roads that need to be upgraded, which in itself has the ability to grow millions of jobs. Also, there is a complete infrastructure development to provide high-speed Internet and energy-efficient facilities across the country.

Ultimately, what will get lost in everything going on is that millions of people still have their jobs and millions more jobs have been created. The bailouts have gotten the effects they have wanted. Since the last bailout, the stock market has gone back up and home sales are back up slightly. In the long run this bailout has the ability to pay for itself, let’s just hope for the sake of the country that that happens.

Subhan Tariq is a Collegian columnist. He can be reached at [email protected].