That’s right, GM, General Motors, the car company which was nationalized, is sponsoring a “free enterprise tour.”
Look GM, you have embraced crony capitalism at every turn. Don’t you even think for a moment that you can associate yourself with honest business, with free enterprise.
I am a big fan of used cars generally. I just can’t bring myself to buy a new one given the immediate depreciation which occurs once I wave goodbye to the salesman. It’s just too painful for me. I prefer to buy my cars used.
I have written before that unions, especially private unions, are not necessarily bad things.
Peter Schweizer reports in the Washington Times, that as bad as many believe the auto bailout was, it is likely worse than they imagine.
Yes GM and Chrysler are alive, as we have said like Dracula is alive. (Not our words originally.) But what was the cost?
GM and Chrysler could have gone bankrupt and life would have gone on. In fact they would probably be better companies today if they had gone bankrupt in the traditional (and legal) way. They would be leaner, meaner, and more competitive.
They would have been restructured and there would have been some disruption to be sure but investors would not have been tossed aside for votes and the American taxpayer would not be on the hook for gratuitous pensions and health benefits. I will never see a pension. Most people my age will never see a pension. I personally am OK with this, but I am not OK with paying for some guy in Lansing to retire at 55 and to move to Florida. That is just theft.
In the attached article Marc Thiessen at AEI calls Vice President Biden out on the following statement:
“Stated simply, we’re about promoting the private sector. They’re about protecting the privileged sector. We’re a fair shot, and a fair shake.… And ultimately that’s what this election is all about. It’s about a choice. A choice between a system that’s rigged, and one that’s fair.”- Joe Biden
Today is the Michigan primary and the Auto Bailout, or more accurately the UAW Bailout is front and center. This reasonably even-handed (for mainstream news) article in the USA Today takes a close look at the massive government intervention.
It shows in a limited way the troubling nature of such heavy-handed government involvement in industry. But the article also is full of pro-bailout nonsense such as this:
“Prosperity may doom Ford. In the Obama administration, succeeding on merit and good business practices will not be tolerated.”
