Posted on 11/12/2008 5:17:43 AM PST by Kaslin
Ludwig Von Mises once wrote that the entrepreneur who fails to use his capital to the "best possible satisfaction of consumers" is "relegated to a place in which his ineptitude no longer hurts people's well-being."
The latest losses at General Motors reveal yet again that it is the living embodiment of managerial ineptitude, and to ensure that it no longer fails its customers while harming the well-being of Americans more broadly, it's essential to let the firm die.
Many will of course blanch at the presumed loss of jobs that would result from GM's death, but judging by the high level of unemployment in Michigan, it would be more realistic to say that GM's continued existence under weak management has served as a capital repellant such that capital and jobs will continue to flee the state if GM is saved with the money of others.
Worse, business history, from ships to farming to mining, shows that sectors reliant on government help are invariably weakened as opposed to strengthened.
The above is the case because businesses rarely fail due to a lack of money. Instead, poorly run businesses find it hard to raise money in the capital markets. Government money allows the architects of bad decisions to continue making mistakes that cause a company to be capital-deficient to begin with.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibdeditorials.com ...
Obamination is calling his cronies in Iran right now for more funds.
DAMN STRAIGHT!
Taking your scenario to the end result, if all corporations seek out “slave labor” to produce their products, who will buy them? We have been the dumping ground for the world but now that is over. Credit has dried up, jobs have been lost, luxory items are once again just that,and necessities are paramount with the consumer. Its not just labor union jobs that have left. The first to go were the shirt factories and the textile industry. The “New Economy” was going to replace those jobs and now they are gone. Trade restrictions on equalizing the playing field in the marginal cost of labor must be instituted. Like I said, never was the definition of free trade the “allowing of slave wages to replace a decent wage”. That is unless you want to destroy the wealth of nations. The long run answer is for China, India, etc. to invest in their economy, and increase the standard of living with good paying jobs. Unfortunately there are more unemployed workers in China and India than there are people in the US. Wages in those countries will remain low until demand for labor is such that it drives them higher. For us, we can’t afford to wait until that happens. We still represent 25% of the worlds GNP. If we don’t start taking care of ourselves, who will? If we fail, the world fails. The world faces deflation because of too many goods and too few buyers. It may be time to crank up the helicopters and drop $100 bills across america.
I have an idea.
If you don't pay taxes, you don't get to vote.
Why should slackers, drug dealers, pimps and thieves be able to vote my earnings into their pockets anyway?
Or does that make too much sense?
If thats too harsh, then lets pick on a subset. What politicians like to call a sin tax (as in, you smoke, we tax cigarettes, you drink, we tax whiskey/wine/beer).
You use drugs? No food stamps, wefare or section 8 housing. You like to do criminal felonies or a set number of misdemeanors? Same thing. No gubmint cheese for you.
You able bodied but don't want to pick up trash or paint over graffiti for your monthly check? Guess what...we have this new way of saving money.....
In fact like airplanes car can last forever with reagular upkeep.
It easier now to restore a Old Chevelle than it was 10 years ago.
Got a VW Bug? the parts are dirt cheap to keep it going.
All the good cars were made years ago anyway.
Get rid of the Miners’ Union, the Teamsters, AFSME, AFL-CIO, hospital workers’ union, NEA...
Sure hope no one works for any of those unions.
A better heading would be “pulling the plug on the UAW”.
That consortium of leeches have met their time. Corrupt, corrupt, corrupt.
What does everyone propose to do with the 1000s of 50-year-old people who took the buyout in good faith, and were depending on that pensions that were supposed to come their way for the next 10 years?
Given the job market...where are they going to go, and how are they going to pay for their lives? You see, you all will end up paying in the end anyway, especially if the auto companies don’t get help.
IF they would help the auto workers directly either with education loans, or job assistance, or for that matter just cut their taxes immensely, some would be able to make it. IF they would forget the stealing of the 401Ks many auto workers would be okay at least for awhile.
I hate to sound like the disgruntled man but those auto workers that were waiting on the buyout or those who took it waited too long to run. I have a friend who worked at Ford for 26 years as a white collar engineer and while there had them pay for him to get a black belt in six sigma (I think that is a load of crap to but that’s a whole nother story). He took a buyout at 50 and “Retired” for three years. He was offered a job with a large Midwest bank teaching six sigma at his convenience and hours. Now he gets his Ford pension, 60K a year from the Bank, and travels around the world on cruises and tours.
I don’t have much sympathy for his pension.
As for those who did 18 years in the auto industry but won’t get anything due to the failings of the company, I think they are comparable to overpaid convenience store clerks who took the money while it was available but did not look ahead. The gravy train was too good to put themselves out for a real job or education. They ought to move somewhere other than Michigan and start a new life doing something productive and give something back to the people they have been fleecing for these years.
“Politics is not a bad profession. If you succeed there are many rewards; if you disgrace yourself you can always write a book.”
- Ronald Reagan
Oh, that's right, the International Brotherhood of Oilfield Trash is not a union, but a tongue-in-cheek comment on the way oilfield folks used to be treated by the folks in some of the towns we ended up working in/near.
See what happens when you don't rent a Congress?
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