The more I hear, the more I shake my head. The big three auto companies’ problems are not a sudden catastrophe that can actually be avoided. Many people in DC seem to think that with just the right shuffling of money, things could be very different. They say we need to do something in order to “save jobs” and prevent a plunge in the economy. They act as if those are things a maniacal evil genius is cooking up, as if those things are something that might happen for no reason at all…
Folks, those jobs being lost and those companies’ financial troubles aren’t random. They reflect the way things actually are. What the people up in DC are trying to do is to change the underlying reality of things. It ain’t going to happen. Those companies have already failed, those workers that are going to lose their jobs are already not needed. A prosperous economy is not based on jobs being kept alive by government fiat, it is based on people providing goods and services that are wanted by consumers. Consumers have been telling the Detroit automakers what they think for years via car sales. If those companies aren’t giving people what they want (both in product and price of that product) then they aren’t contributing to a prosperous economy, they are a drag on it. WHen those companies go under, or at least scale back, all sorts of resources will be freed up to go towards things that will contribute to our economy. Steel, rubber, labor, etc. will be able to be used much more efficiently.
It’ll take a little time, especially in the case of the labor, but it will get sorted out. The longer we prolong the process, the more pain that will be inflicted. Let things go on their natural path, it’s the only way to allow an economy to be prosperous.