The Senate voted not to extend a multi-billion dollar bailout package to the auto industry last night. Rumor has it that the United Auto Workers union wouldn’t budge on Republican demands that workers wages be lowered to be competitive with foreign based car companies in the United States. As I watched C-span, blowhards like Barbara Boxer, Dick Durbin, and Harry Reid started with the rhetoric that Republicans don’t care about the middle class, we’re not willing to lend a hand to help out the American worker, blah blah blah.
The hard part about the decision is that it’s really going to hurt. There are most definitely going to be implications to this decision. Atleast one of the Big 3 (GM, Chrysler, Ford) might be forced into Chapter 11 bankruptcy and workers probably will lose their jobs (although it’s interesting that already it might seem that GM overstated their dire need for cash, claiming they might not run out this year but could make it through first 1/4 or early next year). There will doubtlessly be implications in our economy as unemployment rises and all the residual things start to happen.
That’s the price of years & decades of poor, sloppy, financially negligent business practices. For years the Unions drove wages & benefits through the roof. Sure, they said they were working for the middle class. How’s that feel now? This is a PERFECT example of the idiocy of Democratic fiscal policy. Sure, you can tax the rich (in this case the tax was exorbitant wages for workers compared with their counterparts at Hyundai, etc) but who ends up paying that wage? Every person who buys a Ford, Chevy, or Chrysler pays the wage. So go ahead, tax the crap out of the wealthy heads of companies. Notice we’re not talking about any of them personally declaring bankruptcy. In fact, they’re financially stable enough that they offered to work for a dollar a year if only the government would give them billions of dollars.
What this all comes down to is choosing to respond based on timeless, proven, unchanging principles. Thankfully, Republican Senators took what is hopefully a first step in the long journey back to principled, fiscally responsible policies in America.
Principles are hard. They require to you live and move and breathe with an eye to what has gone before and what is coming in the future. Principles require that you not simply react to a situation in what seems to be the most expedient way, but rather that you respond in a way that will do the greatest good for the greatest number for the longest time.
In the short term, this is going to hurt. In the long term, we will have the opportunity for a viable, globally competitive auto industry. I still believe in the American worker. I believe in the American auto industry. I don’t think it will fail. In fact, I believe that once the garbage is cleared out, we’re going to see a sleeker, more efficient, far more competitive industry. Twenty years from now you’ll see fewer foreign cars on American highways because last night, Republican Senators chose to let conservative economic principles work in our economy.
