Posted on 11/21/2008 3:37:51 PM PST by CE2949BB
Washington, D.C. -- Politicians across the spectrum are calling for an auto bailout, arguing that we cannot allow such large companies to fail.
"If U.S. automakers cannot find a market fix for their problems, they must fail," said Alex Epstein, an analyst at the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights. "They should go through bankruptcy proceedings so that creditors and owners can redeploy their assets as efficiently as possible.
"Every day these companies remain in existence in their current form, they are destroying shareholder wealth and wasting worker effort. To preserve these companies with a bailout would be obscenely unfair. Every dollar of a bailout would come at the expense of those who did nothing to cause the auto mess.
"There is one thing the government does owe the auto companies, however: freedom. For example, however the industry shakes out, automakers must be liberated from CAFE fuel economy laws that arbitrarily dictate what kind of cars they must sell, forcing them to sell millions of small cars that have no chance of profitability given consumer preferences. The auto industry must also be liberated from the Wagner Act, which gives unions the coercive negotiating power that railroaded the Big Three into their lavish, unprofitable wage and health plans. If a liberated Big Three can rejuvenate themselves, great; otherwise, a liberated next generation will be able to succeed where they failed.
"Economic freedom is what created the American automotive industry and made it the envy of the world. Economic freedom is the only thing that can bring it back."
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Mr. Epstein is an analyst at the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights, focusing on business issues.
Mr. Epstein's op-eds and letters to the editor have appeared in such publications as the Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Chronicle, Philadelphia Inquirer, Canada's National Post, and the Washington Times. He is also a contributing writer for The Objective Standard, a quarterly journal of culture and politics. Mr. Epstein has been a guest on numerous nationally syndicated radio programs.
Who wants to be my bankruptcy attorney? I'd like a get-out-of-debt free card, too!
In what way were you shackled by the government so that you could use it as an excuse for declaring bankruptcy?
So what happens to all those who put in 25+ years and their pensions with a bankruptcy?
A lot of people probably think bankruptcy is the end. It isn’t. Companies go bankrupt and continue to operate. Someone posted a study that concluded that most companies come out of bankruptcy proceedings stronger than when they went in.
I’m no expert, but I gather that bankruptcy proceedings oversee a company’s actions, when the company’s management has demonstrated that they are no longer up to the challenge. Bankruptcy proceedings follow the law, past precedents, and involve disinterested and thorough review. That sounds better to me than leaving it up to the politicians making things up on the fly for the benefits of soundbites.
It was a joke!
You mean you are not in financial straits, only pretending. I missed the obvious, I guess.
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