Bailout Fallout

It started in the financial industry. It looks like it’s spreading to the automotive industry. I wonder why no one is concerned with the construction industry. I hear people bemoaning the ancillary job losses that will occur if the “big three” aren’t bailed out. How about the effects of the construction down turn on the “support economy” If there is no building, there will be no material sales. Loggers will loose their jobs. Those who make (or import) nails and other hardware items and appliance manufacturers and wholesalers will suffer. The people who make roofing shingles, copper and iron pipe, windows, paint, drywall, floor tile, carpet, and on and on will find their standard of living reduced or destroyed. The entrepreneur who drives the “chuck wagon” will fall on hard times. Where is the hand wringing for all of these fine Americans. Do we need to have a major corporation or union behind us before we matter in the eyes of those who’ve been elected to serve the American people? It would seem so.

I recall such names as Hudson, Packard, Nash, Studebaker, Kaiser, Tucker and so on. These cars are no longer manufactured in the US and yet the sky has not fallen. But, to listen to those who support the bailout you would think that without it the end is near.

Folks, remember one thing when you consider whether or not the US government should bail out the “Big Three”. Every dollar they give them has to come from our pockets. Worse yet it will cost the government untold additional dollars to administer giving the bailout dollars away. Think not? We recently had a stimulus program whereby the government “gave” us a check. To do so they had to write each of us a letter telling us they were going to do it and then another telling us that they had. How many of you didn’t know it was going to happen and how many didn’t know when it had? The US Government is already so deep in debt that it will take generations to pay it off – if we don’t increase it, yet they can find seemingly endless funds to toss at mismanaged financial institutions and auto manufacturers. Perhaps we should be asking those in Congress to work for a dollar a year until we reach financial solvency.

Taxpayers, I urge you to contact your elected representatives and tell to stop playing loose and free with your money!