I don’t get it. The American auto industry is failing. For whatever reasons, they can no longer make a profit. Note that people still want cars … It’s just that not as many want American cars as foreign cars, since foreign cars are known for being better. However, some do actually want American cars — but the American car companies happen to be poorly run. Plus, they are hampered by all kinds of regulations and government-supported union rules that competing, foreign companies are not hampered by.
I get all this. What I don’t get is why or how pouring billions of taxpayer dollars into these companies is suddenly going to make them profitable. I understand that those who now control Washington don’t really care about profit. In fact, they got elected telling people that profit and capitalism are largely bad. What these politicians do care about are the labor unions. How labor unions are supposed to survive without profit generated by capitalism is anybody’s guess. The politicians also care about forcing automakers to manufacture environmentally friendly cars. If they bail out the auto companies, it’s easier to force them to do this. Yet, if environmentally friendly cars don’t sell when private capitalists own GM and Ford, then why will they suddenly start to sell when the government takes over GM and Ford? No answer is given because the question is never asked. Why is the question never asked?
The premise beneath all this is simple: Government officials think they are smarter and more capable than capitalists. They think they’re much more moral too. If this were true, America should have abandoned capitalism (or what’s left of it) a long time ago. Instead, America has held on to capitalism more tenaciously than most. In the process, America got a lot more done.
I may end up wrong, but I have a funny feeling that the American automakers are going to get their billions (or is it trillions?) in taxpayer dollars. For all practical purposes, the U.S. government will own them. This will be an example of all out socialism right here in the USA. Socialized cars. Government officials will get their chance to show how much more competent, and how much more virtuous, they supposedly are. America, watch and learn.