I'll Bail YOU Out

Desperate times call for desperate measures: in my case, novice economic pontification. Some advocates of unfettered capitalism aren't really advocates of unfettered capitalism, but rather, corporate socialism. Long before AIG there existed the notion that the federal government should bail out large corporations. When navigating the proverbial fence, your decision ultimately transcends dogmatic hyperbole. Or is that what it ultimately boils down to?

Band-aids and golden parachutes when perhaps major surgery is necessary. PUBLIC resources down the CORPORATE drain. I personally don't care what GM executives and their Chrysler and Ford counterparts have to say about their dire circumstances. Executives’ executives don’t get to play Karl Marx when it suits them. Not when intellectuals without vested interests in "The Big Three" have argued on the behalf of market forces and against taxpayer/federal assistance. Why not support workers and the communities that would be adversely affected by a bankruptcy filing instead? Or have certain businesses become so enormous that they rightfully command our unwavering attention and resources in a floundering economy?

On a certain level, as an American, it's frustrating that GM has long been so ineptly run that I would take a certain abstract visceral pleasure in watching its demise unfold. Companies of this sort are supposed to flounder and die, no? Isn't this a fundamental idea upon which our economy is predicated? GM has failed to make themselves and their products relevant through thick AND thin economic cycles. Remember when the hybrid craze first began and GM stubbornly clung to the notion that big, huge, silly cars with no regard for fuel economy were somehow innately American? Like by refusing to change they were somehow defending our way of life? At least from a distance, wouldn't continued inefficacy follow a large scale bailout?

To Be Continued....