Why is it that capitalists love the free market until they get in
trouble? Perhaps the current financial crisis is a sign that its not
good to let companies get too big. (Unfortunately, the result is the
opposite, with big banks swallowing up other 'sick' big banks.) At
least with banks, the government has been willing to let some fail.
If we really want to bailout the auto industry, we should declare a
"Bear Stearns", "Washington Mutual" and "Lehman Brothers". After we
let those go away, we could start bailing out other automakers. So,
lets see, how 'bout we let GM, Ford, and Chrysler all go belly up.
Then we can bail out Tesla.
American auto companies lost their way a while ago, as the foreigners
have produced better cars, and built better labor relations in the
US. Sure, they employ lots of people. But, they have also laid off a
lot of people. If one were to shut down, would that make much of a
dent in the past decade's overall layoff count?
We should let the dinosaurs go. In the short term, our auto needs
could easily be filled by the Japanese and European carmakers. They
could probably even buy off some of the better Big-3 plants and
convert them over. In the long wrong, new, more nimble transportation
providers will evolve. Cars as we currently know it are on their way
out. We might as well let the companies that build them go that way
also.
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