Let the Free Market Work!

Since my last post, I have received several “Shame on you”s from people about saying that we should just let the “big 3” hang.

Well, allow me to modify that slightly. What they have proven is that they are fully incapable of running their own businesses anywhere but into the ground. They proved this in the eighties when president Reagan issued long-term loans to them (I think of that as the first bail-out for the big 3), and they’ve proved it again in the nineties and this decade.

So let me put it this way…

Let them continue in business, and, yes, bail them out… but only under the following conditions…

First off, treat them as receiverships. In other words, don’t ASK those three ding-dongs to sell their private jets… MAKE them sell their private jets. And whatever other luxuries they have. THEY RUN FAILING BUSINESSES. MAKE THEM REALIZE THAT. They are private businesses. If you ran a business and it started failing, what would your first response be? To go whining for the government to bail you out because YOU’RE too dumb to run a business? No, you’d probably SELL SOME SHIT. Make these idiots sell some of the luxuries that their ill-gotten millions or billions or whatever have gotten them. Make them sell their estates and move into apartments. Make THEM pony up at least some of the dough to save their own asses, which they seem unwilling to do.

Secondly, make rules for them. You remember the Café standards that I mentioned in the last post? Put them back into place, but make them stricter. No car rolls off of the assembly line that exceeds a certain level of emissions and/or gets under thirty miles to the gallon city. Of course, RV’s and trucks would be exempt from the gas mileage rules, but a separate set of standards could be set for those. And no more Hummers or Expeditions. EVER.

Third, set up a strict repayment plan WITH INTEREST. If they fail to make their payments, treat them like any other debtor.

Fourth, require them to move the lion’s share of their jobs back to America. Everyone keeps saying that doing that would make the products too costly, but trust me – when you get to the point of “private jet” wealthy, you can afford to live a little more frugally. Alan Mulally, the CEO of Ford made four million dollars last year. But here’s the kicker – when he was hired in 2006, he was given an EIGHTEEN AND A HALF MILLION DOLLAR BONUS! So from 2006 to now, the guy has made more than twenty million dollars! And the company says that they can’t afford to employ Americans? Balderdash! Cut this dipwad’s salary to a million a year, and he’s STILL making a damned good living, and you can afford to employ Americans.

Finally… and I know that I risk sounding like a broken record here… but come up with a plan to get this money that DOESN’T require borrowing more from foreign powers or our children and grandchildren. Let’s not go further into debt bailing out businesses that have PROVEN that they can’t operate in a free market.

Now I’m back to my original point. If you can’t do this… if you can’t live by these rules… LET THEM FAIL. It’ll hurt, no question about it, but we’re Americans, damn it! We’ve lived through a depression, more recessions than I can count, a civil war, two world wars and George W. Bush. We can live through ANYTHING!

Look, we keep being told over and over again by rich people, corporations and Republicans that the free market works. Let it work!

Peace.

Randal