Auto Nation

The government does not want anyone to fail unless you are doing everything right. Then all they want is taxes so they can keep every other entity afloat. Do you give to charity? I do every time the government takes their cut of my pay. Now we may own a piece of the auto industry. Since we own the banking industry, it is only fitting that we also have a manufacturing arm. The unions could not live with bankruptcy, so the auto industry will now be owned by the government. I wonder if the unions remember the strike of the air traffic controllers? Probably not. And it probably does not matter since the Democrats were elected by the unions and are now in control.

Let's look ahead. I go to buy a car from Ford, GM or Chrysler and my loan is denied. I will immediately write my congressman and demand the car. After all, my tax dollars are funding the bailout and I (the taxpayer) now have a stake in the companies. If there is a problem with the car, call my congressman. I run out of gas, call my congressman. New tires, no problem. Need an oil change, no problem.

I do not understand. Bankruptcy was designed for what the auto industry is experiencing. But money talks...So they get the cash and immediately begin making campaign contributions as well as paying off union bosses. I do not have a problem with unions except those that advocate having thousands of people getting paid for doing nothing. Pensions are one thing, but paying workers to not work is not productive, it violates the spirit of free enterprise and shackles our nation to a non-competitive work force in a very competitive environment. Why is it so hard for a union worker to find a job in the non-union world? Why do they need the crutch? The concept sounds socialistic to me. I read a letter in the Houston Chronicle which laid out why unions' approach have ruined an industry's ability to be competitive. It is titled "A telling UAW story" by Roger Vaught: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/editorial/outlook/6145741.html

The unions and the federal government have built a welfare state. Now anytime an industry sneezes, the government proposes a bailout. Who will pay for this? I doubt it will ever actually be paid back. The government has paid off the wall street crooks and now is rewarding the auto industry with their payoff. I am surprised the dollar is still so strong. I wonder when all of our "loans" are going to be called by China. We may have to bail them out from us.

These times are scary. I think the government should look hard at what worked and did not work during the depression. But it seems that we did not learn from history and are doomed to repeat it.