Bailouts Have No End

Several weeks ago, we were told that a bailout of the financial institutions to the tune of $700 billion was absolutely essential and it had to be done immediately. The initial bill failed and then the following week after adding more than an additional $100 billion to buy congressional votes, it passed. The Secretary of the Treasury was given unprecedented power in determining how this huge amount of money would be spent.
Since that time, the market has continued to tumble down. Now the big three in the automobile market tells us that they need an immediate infusion of cash to the tune of about $25 billion or they will not survive. To add to all of this turmoil, the states of California and New York also want the taxpayers to bail them out.
I suspect that if each of these entities were given a trillion dollars each, it would not matter. The systems are ineffective and inefficient and no amount of money will correct that. In the past, when a company could not survive, it went bankrupt. In many cases these companies were able to restructure and return to profitable status and in other cases they ceased to exist. In effect, that was truly the survival of the fittest.
In the case of the auto industry, the companies do very well in their overseas markets. In China the most popular vehicle is the Buick, and GM does very well in Europe. Could it be that part of the difficulty for our auto industry is the restrictions levied by Congress and the environmentalists? I suspect that if the government does bail out the auto industry, there will be severe requirements imposed to include building cars that no one wants and will not buy. Bankruptcy will merely be delayed and the results will be even more severe.
What are the average families doing during this downturn in the economy? It is obvious that consumer spending has declined; people are traveling less, eating out less and watching all of their spending. That's what we always do.
Look at the states and local governments and observe what they do. Michigan is a disaster area and the governor's answer is to once again raise taxes. In New York, they intend to reduce the police force by 1,000 and add 200 meter maids. The meter maids will bring in millions from parking tickets - a hidden tax.
No matter where one looks, governments continue to be out of step with the population and have one overriding desire and that is to become bigger and seize more power. Large companies such as the auto industry forget why they became big. It was not that many years ago when an adage was" What's good for General Motors is good for the USA."
Poor decision-making and poor leadership must not be rewarded, or it will never be corrected. The congressional members who contributed to much of this mess by not heeding the warning over the past several years should be held accountable.