Posted by
Paul Wamack on Saturday, January 03, 2009 4:55:44 PM
There is no meaning to this notion that there are businesses in this country that are "too big to fail." That expression doesn't make any sense to me at all. The way I translate that from the original ancient texts it should read: "You had your chance and you blew it!"
We have had big companies go into bankruptcy before and somehow the country has managed to survive. Enron is one name that comes to mind. Instead of bailing them out, they were prosecuted. Hmmm. That's something of a "turnaround," don't you think?
Speaking of "turnaround," there is no whisper of any restructuring or change in business plan for the recipients of all this taxpayer money. We are going to expand the government and that is going to make a difference in our ability to build a better car or run our banks and financial institutions for effectively? FDR would be so pleased! All we are doing is prolonging their bad business practices at the expense of our prosperity and our grandchildren's prosperity.
I bought a new car last year. I wanted to support American workers (unionized or otherwise). I wanted to get the most fuel efficiency. I was also looking at durability, resale value, safety ratings, the whole enchilada. I did my research. Lots of research. I cruised the web for months looking for more data and more statistics ... and I read and read. In the end, I bought a Toyota. It was the first car I had bought in many years that wasn't a Ford. But what I had discovered in my reading and researching was that Ford had more parts made beyond our national borders than the Toyota did. That's right, there were more American parts, and more American workers, going into a Toyota than into a Ford.
But for all my efforts to "Buy American" and get a fuel efficient car, I still have to give up some of my pay to bail out these so-called American auto makers anyway -- in addition to my car payment. Instead of me voluntarily giving it to them in reward to making a car that I wanted to own and drive, I have to give it to them in the form of government welfare and they don't have to make anything worthwhile in exchange. They don't have to manufacture anything that I want to buy, and I still get to pay them anyway. It just doesn't seem right.
The government is giving money to these companies because the open marketplace isn't providing enough money. If I made a product that no one wanted, I would go out of business. Then, the resources that I was using would go to someone else who was making something that the markets DID want to buy. Think of it like this -- if General Motors wasn't buying the steel to put into their cars, the price of steel to Nissan would decline because there would be less demand for steel, fewer companies competing for the supply of steel.
Now, we are going to have some new government bureaucrats (a "car czar") helping people who already can't run car companies. There isn't a shred of logic in this plan. If these companies wanted business consultants, they would have hired them years ago.
The American voter knows this isn't a good plan. There is something in the water around the Potomac River that muddles the thinking of the people in Washington D.C. We can elect people from amongst ourselves, folks that seem so reasonable -- and when we send them to govern, they just go loopy. The longer they stay in Washington, the loopier they get. Apparently, George Bush has ingested enough of the water to turn into a Socialist. Luckily, his days are numbered. But he has shown the way and I am sure that the Dems (all of whom have been drinking the water of Washington DC for years. Where's the change? ... it's like the little old lady from the vintage Wendy's commercial, "Where's the beef?") will hold forth the banner of government intervention into more industries. My best guess is that the next industry that will need a bailout should be the airlines .... they have a strong union, too, which has kept them from profitability for years.
But no one in Washington who is handing out the money seems to care that the American voters don't like this plan. They just keep right on rolling. I still don't understand why we needed the first bailout package -- it appears to me that was a panic over nothing whatsoever. But having panicked, the government itself has set off this chain of events which is sending us into a spiral of failing consumer confidence and reduced investments.