Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
Steal : Verb. 1. to take the property of another wrongfully and especially as a habitual or regular practice.
Conservative Dictionary:
Steal : Verb. 1. to wrongfully take the property of another. See also: “unfair tax”, “oppressive tax”, and “mug”.
Communist Dictionary:
Steal : Verb. 1. to earn a profit. Not to be confused with the wrongful taking of property, as there is no such thing as property so nothing can be wrongfully taken. Likewise, as there is no property, a company cannot possibly earn a profit, as that would be the “accumulation of wealth”, a form of property, which as stated does not exist.
Know who you are speaking to, by how they use the word.
If I were to ask myself, “how did the country get to where it is today?” I would be looking at a long long story, discussing such things as the motivations of politicians, doleists, the news media, environmentalists, and a few other groups... for the moment I shall speak of what ultimately became the the final push for socializing healthcare, the housing bubble that burst.
It started quite simply. Banks were robbed. Seriously. Mind you, guns weren't used. How this happened was someone walked into a bank with their lawyer, and said: “Pay up or I'll sue.” Or to be more honest: “Give me a loan or I'll sue.” The people wanted homes, but they had nowhere near enough money to buy a home. So, the government stepped in and mandated to banks: “You shall pay out loans to people who can't afford them.” The banks didn't want to make these loans. It was stupid. The loans were sub-prime. It would run them out of business. But government decreed it, lawyers and courts backed it up, and the bad loans were made. Happily (for the short term), the government also provided FNMA and FHLMC, or “Fannie Mae” and “Freddie Mac” as they are more commonly known. What these government enterprises did is they bought home-loans. Banks would sell their loans to these government enterprises. All was well and good. Ahem, until people started defaulting on the home loans they never could afford. Defaulting... basically, they couldn't make more payments on the homes they never were able to afford, so they moved out, letting the bank reclaim the home.
As more and more people began defaulting on their loans at higher and higher rates, the banks would retake the homes and try to sell them. This lead slowly to a surplus of houses in the market “For Sale”. This was supply going up. Demand however, did the opposite. Each time someone defaulted on a loan, the bank had to recoup the value of the loan by selling the home. Until they could recoup that cost, they could not make another loan. The result was home prices dropped. Quickly, people then found themselves in a home that was worth less than the loan on it. They could, legally, walk away from the home without paying another cent on the loan. Some people are not known for being idiots. They saw the bargain being handed them and they walked out on their loans. Banks had more unowned homes they had to sell. Supply went up more. Prices went down more. This lead to a collapse in the housing market, where there were more homes in the market than people looking to buy them. This also cut into banks, they had lots of hard property, but less liquid asset to loan out, and no equitable way to turn the property into liquid asset. The lack of liquid cash at banks chilled the credit markets. And then at a not-so-arbitrary point (just before an election), Congress (who had mandated the sub-prime loans) stepped in and was “aghast” at the crisis in the housing market started by the “greedy banks”. The bulk of the media followed suit, blaming the banks for the crisis, when the bulk of it lay with Congress itself. This was akin to tying someones shoes together, giving them a shove, and then expressing shock at how that person had “hurt themselves” on the pavement.
Like any “Good Samaritan”, after shoving the banks over, Congress offered to help, and when the banks accepted the offer, Congress did so by kicking the banks while they were down. Congress pledged to pour money into the housing market, to buy up the bad loans. And they did. A tiny fraction of what they promised. More money went to bail out (read: Buy Up) other industries. But people had been told that the government would buy their loans, so they sat on them waiting for the government to come around and buy. This had the effect of freezing the housing market. It also artificially inflated housing prices, just the mere offer of “We'll buy stuff for more than it's worth” will make seller wait for the promised buyer.
This general slow-down in the movement of financial transactions, as well as the thousands of people being evicted from their homes, and banks loosing billions, as well as congresses “efforts to help” (read: Kick-em-while-they're-down) was like dumping ice water into the furnace of the economy. It slowed down, cooled off. Companies had less work to do, so they let go employees that were not required. Those employees had no income, so they stopped buying anything they didn't absolutely need. So stores had fewer sales. Companies had less work to do, etc...
Then things went Really Wrong. Someone claimed they had “a plan”...