We've Lost the War

To bail out or not to bail out.  That is the question.   (With apologies to Shakespeare.)

The bigger questions are:

1.  Is it good for America to bail out America's automakers?

    and

2.  Is it the role of government to bail out failed businesses?

The answer to both of these questions is a resounding NO!

As I mentioned previously, not bailing out the big three and allowing them to go under will have severe and long-lasting negative repercussions.  But it would also in the long run strengthen our economy.  

Bailing out these companies will have two huge negative impacts:  1.  They will perpetuate failed companies.  The big three automakers have loads of problems, from management, to vision, to the unionized workers, to their designers and products.  Everything is wrong with these companies.  Bailing them out now doesn't solve those problems, it only makes the taxpayers pay for them.   2.  Bailing out the automakers creates a precedent that is very, very dangerous.  I realize the precedent has, in many ways, already been set.  But the role of government should not be to bail out failing companies.  To do so weakens corporate America.  It rewards failure.  It turns a back on accountability.  In short, bailing out America's automakers may allow us to win the economic battle (the short term), but will cause us to lose the war (the long term).

We must allow the big three to fail.  To prop them up will eventually cause the collapse of the entire American economy.  Unfortunately, it seems that's the direction we are headed ... in a handbasket.