I know that this will be a shock to all of the readers of mises.org, but GM and Chrysler are begging for more money. $16.6 & $5 billion for GM and Chrysler respectively. To demonstrate their brilliant ability to change and restructure both have agreed to cut jobs and close a few factories. Who knew that they would com back with their collective hands out?
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I never quite understood the part where the CEOs had to come up with a “plan” to keep the auto companies running. After all, how many people in Congress or the White House know squat about running a business? How would they know if the “plan” actually makes sense?
It strikes me as more a form of punishment, akin to making the CEOs write on the blackboard 10,000 times “I will not cut union benefits”.
There is only one business plan that anyone, even with the purest of intentions, could possibly come up with that would stand a prayer of a chance of succeeding — the plan that is dictated by economic reality.
But bailouts exist for the express purpose of shielding the recipient from economic reality. It is designed to enable the recipient to avoid engaging in the calculation of profit and loss, and thus to avoid the decision-making that would follow those calculations.
But reality is stubborn. The car companies couldn’t possibly make the appropriate changes in the way they do business, because they deliberately CHOSE to ignore the economic realities that were telling them which business changes to make.
Of course, the US State/Mafia did not “give” the car companies all that fake money because they wanted to help the car companies. They gave it to control them, to enslave the car companies a little more completely.
The fact the car companies are coming back for more will then be used as a tool for enslaving them even further.
Sandwhich,
“It strikes me as more a form of punishment, akin to making the CEOs write on the blackboard 10,000 times “I will not cut union benefits”.”
Absolutely, I second that !
But how about making Pelosi and Reid write on the blackboard “I will not rob taxpayer’s money” 1 TRILLION TIMES !!!!
“The fact the car companies are coming back for more will then be used as a tool for enslaving them even further. ”
En enslave the taxpayers even more by raising their taxes to pay for the failing companies and by forcing them to “buy american”.
I think there was an article on mises.org about how no matter what happens the auto industry was going to be back for more money shortly after they got the initial bailout.
Anyone remember this SNL skit?
http://djkonservo.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/saturday-night-live-cspan-auto-bailout-skit/
Robert, thank you. That clip is WONDERFUL!
Walter Jones is, by happy coincidence, “my” congressman. I was pleased to see the character say, “I don’t lie to my constituents”, although I can’t talk about the actual representative other than he votes along with Ron Paul a little bit of the time.
Well gentlemen, I would be shocked if they would not come back for more “gratis” money
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