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Originally Posted by Neal Stevens
I'm glad Bush pushed through this emergency loan package for the auto industry. It may have something to do with the 5000 shares of Ford (F) stock I bought 11/25,  but I also think the US needs a viable auto industry. We cannot keep shutting down all our industries, people. Pretty soon all we'll have left are Wal-Mart, Starbucks, and McDonalds. |
Neal, you commie!:p
I'm sure you're not surprised that I disagree. I can't think of one good reason to keep the auto industry around any longer than the market allows. We're just putting the inevitable "FAIL" on the state's charge card.
This country performs poorly in a number of industries because this is no longer an industrial country. The standard of living has exceeded that provided by that type of economy for quite some time now. Many goods are simply not able to be produced profitably in America, and that's ok.
For the next step in our economic development, we need look no further than the market. Can you imagine what a nation with our resources, labor pool, and remaining social freedoms could do if we had an economic policy like that of Hong Kong? Heck, we could make it even more business friendly. We don't need factories or smelters or what-have-you on American soil to prosper, we just need to own the companies that own those facilities.
The easiest way to do that is to embrace economic freedom and step away from state control. We already have just about everything a global industry could want, and eliminating corporate taxes and excessive legal constraints could only help. We might even get some outsourced factories back as well.
Whether you believe that scenario or not, much of our industry will end up being outsourced, anyway. Nothing can stop that. No matter what measures the state takes, it cannot beat the market. Money always finds a way. Imo, the
worst thing we can do is let the government get involved in any significant fashion. All we end up doing is concentrating political and monetary power even further.
Notwithstanding all that, the Federal Government has no power to issue bailouts to begin with. Neither that power, nor anything remotely like it, is enumerated in the Constitution, so they simply don't have that power. End of story. The longer we tolerate this state of affairs, the further we drift from the ideals of choice and liberty that made this country great to begin with.
The more you fight the market, the more you lose. How many pathetic socialist economies does it take to prove?