Even with the Dow Jones industrial average recently lurching above 10,000 for the first time in 12 months, there’s still plenty to worry about when it comes to the economy. Nothing brings cold blood to a boil faster than talking bailouts.

JP Morgan was awarded $25 billion, then increased the outsourcing of jobs to India by 25% to $400 million and recently announced a $3.59 billion profit for the third quarter of 2009. To their credit, their money was repaid--but not General Motors’:

They borrowed $50 billion, only to eliminate 10,000 salaried positions (14% of its white-collar workforce), and then go bankrupt. The U.S. government now owns 60% of the company, the United Auto Workers union gets 17.5%, and the Canadian government gets 12%. The rest goes to bondholders.

Additionally, the primary lender to customers seeking financing for GM vehicles, GMAC Financial Services, is begging for another $5.6 billion on top of the $12.5 billion it’s already gotten.

Of the $700 billion dollars that have been provided by the government, only $70 billion of it has been paid back; some of it, like Chrysler’s $7 billion, won’t be coming back. Also, despite the fact that much ado was made about saving small businesses, only $15 billion of the bailout has gone to them, with another $44 billion on the way.

And before you think that a few bil’ is just small potatoes, it helps to get some perspective on how much money this is: in 2008, the yearly wage for a typical worker was $32,390. To earn  $1 billion, the average person would have to work for about 32,390 years. Oh, and a billion seconds ago it was 1977.

--Brandon