Where Do You Stand on the Auto Bailout?

This week, the U.S. Senate stopped the Auto Bailout bill.  This is the bill that President Bush worked with the Democrat leadership in the House and Senate to try to get passed.  This is the yet another time that the Republicans have stood on principle and have gone against their President and/or Presidential Candidate, Sen. John McCain.

No one likes to see someone out of work.  As someone who was recently laid off, the terror of not knowing if you’ll find work, and when, and wondering how you’ll pay for your family to eat and stay in their house.  And yet, I don’t think that the right solution for companies that do not have good business practices is to come in and save them and let them continue what got them in to trouble in the first place.

While I know that the bailout plan contained governmental oversight in restructuring, I can’t help but feel that with all of the special interest involved in the government today that the auto makers would find themselves in a worse mess than they are currently in if they took this deal.

While names like Chrysler and GM are big names, and I’d be sad to see them go, think about how many big names didn’t get a bailout.  Names like Montgomery Ward, etc.  And before you say things about American named auto companies, these aren’t the first U.S. companies to go out of business.  I remember watching Annie and wondering what a Duisenberg was.  There were other auto companies that have been been big names that have come and gone.

There is a blessing in things going down—whether it’s the market or a specific company having trouble.  The downturn exposes the problems that you have in your system.  It’s a time of cleansing, a time to figure out what works and what doesn’t.  By bailing these people out when they do wrong, they prevent the opportunity for something else to come and do a better job.

Through the dust of something that once was can rise something much better.