Detroit Bailout Idiocy

Well the incoming Obama-Pelosi-Reid regime has already made clear its intent to lend a hand to America's failing "Big Three" auto companies. The Dems are contemplating rescue measures on the tune 0f 25-50 billion dollars to save these failing companies from bankruptcy. On the surface such a bailout of the auto industry would appear a continuation of the 700 billion dollar TARP plan to rescue America's crumbling financial institutions. However, these plans are fundamentally different.

The TARP plan was clearly a necessity to rescue America's entire financial system. A failure of the financial sector would create a cascade of negative effects that could lead to something like another Great Depression. When banks fail, lending stops, business activity slows, business expansion halts, jobs are lost...... the whole world goes to shits. So the financial bailout was not really a choice- and once these institutions become profitable again as they almost always have been, the taxpayer should get the majority of that money back, and may even end up making money on the deal. Such a positive turn around proves highly unlikely for the auto industry. America's auto companies are a joke - they can't make a decent automobile that Americans actually want to buy in significant numbers. The free market has spoken and people generally prefer German, Japanese, and other foreign cars. "Innovation" is not exactly thriving in Detroit. Toyota makes better cars, and many of those cars happen to be made right here in the USA, creating hundreds of thousands of solid middle class jobs right here at home. Another significant problem for American auto companies is the power of the commie United Autoworkers Union whose demands for benefits have overwhelmed American auto companies to the point where they could hardly turn a profit even if people actually wanted to buy their shitty cars. UAW workers receive about 80 bucks an hour on average in wages and benefits, while Toyota workers in America see about 48 an hour. Thus not only does Toyota make better cars, but they make em cheaper. If the Big Three want to pay their workers that much, fine by me. It's a free country (sort of) and they can pay their employees whatever the hell they want (actually it doesn't quite work that way because of the minimum wage and other pesky government controls on private enterprise). However, I'll be damned if as the taxpayer I have to subsidize these outrageous benefits for employees whose companies are failing. If the government is going to give a single penny in benefits to these failing companies, let the UAW tear up their labor contracts and let's start paying those employees what they're worth, not what their parasitic, commie unions demand. If the UAW thugs get one penny of my taxpayer dollars, I will be throw a hissy fit.

Now to be fair, the TARP plan will also be providing taxpayer dollars to fund the stratospheric bonuses of imbecile Wall Street executives whose reckless trading practices contributed significantly to the current sorry state of the economy (although the consensus is to blame everything on those "greedy bankers" while deflecting all blame from the Democrats and the Community Reinvestment Act that forced banks to give loans to people in low income areas that they could not afford in order to promote "home ownership"). It is outrageous for the taxpayers to be funding bonuses or even high salaries for these people. Unfortunately, however, we need a stable financial system and financial services happens to be one of the few industries that helps America retain its competitive edge in the global economy. And hopefully the plan won't end up being a "bailout" at all as these companies will return to profitability and pay the taxpayer back for their emergency loans. But those Wall Streeters should be hurting more than they are... and there should not be one penny of bonus dollar to any company executive receiving even a nickel of federal aid. I don't want to pay them bonuses for fucking up.

Now this Detroit bailout scheme really highlights the policy priorities of the left in this country. They want to throw billions and billions in government money to horribly mismanaged auto companies that are controlled largely by parasitic unions while at the same time punishing the evil "Big Oil" which happens to be one of the few profitable industries in this country right now. Instead of thanking "Big Oil" for providing us with that evil gasoline and home heating oil we demand (should we all live in caves by candlelight?), we not only deride them as wanting to destroy the environment (even though they're simply supplying a highly demanded product at a relatively low rate of marginal profit compared to that of other industries) but the Democrats want to create a special tax just for them. The "windfall profits tax" that would make Nancy Pelosi weak at the knees would force oil companies not only to pay their 35% corporate tax (one of the highest corporate tax rates in the world) but would add an additional tax just for them. So the liberals say, "Hey Oil Companies, you're making too much money right now and Barney Frank wants some to pay for welfare programs and tax cuts for people who don't pay taxes." What's next? If another industry is making too much money for the Democrats' comfort will the Democrats create a special tax for them? I love the left... let's punish the winners who are helping our economy grow to provide billions to the losers in Detroit... Capitalism ain't dead but it's dying....