Not Another Bail Out

Another private company falls victim to the global economic crisis – U.S. Steel Canada, says they are temporarily closing plants, displacing at least 1,500 jobs.

Rumours are already circulating of yet another publicly funded government bailout for yet another private company.

At this rate, with all the public funds – meaning yours and mine funds via tax dollars – there won’t be very much we the people don’t have a vested financial interest in.

Though you will never have a say as to how those interests are managed, funny how the more we spend the less we have control.

Wait a sec – isn’t that wrong? Shouldn’t we have a say in how our dollars are spent? Who’s to say these companies won’t just continue to make the same mistakes which got them into their financial woes? Who will be held accountable should these big global mega-giant privately run businesses fail, with our publicly funded tax dollars?

Yes, the economy is to blame, yadda yadda yadda . . . there is more to it than just a bad economy. Economists for years have been predicting a global meltdown; it’s just part of the cyclical nature of our market-based economy. It always goes up and down, there are highs and then there are always lows which follow.

Even if you don’t want to listen to the economists publicly warning of the impending economic crunch, most – if not all – of these mega-corporations have very well paid, and supposedly very knowledgeable economists of their own. They should have seen what was coming, and worked with their executive and other business teams to ensure the longevity of their company through the economic downturn.

It shouldn’t always be up to publicly funded governments to save the private corporations of the world because they simply failed to plan for tomorrow.
For years the North American auto market has been in a slump of sorts. This all started several years ago, when gas prices started to rise. People started realizing that those big SUVs would bankrupt them at the gas station. So, when it came to looking for a new car, they started looking for more fuel efficient models.

The North American automakers were still churning out big gas-hogging vehicles, but the Japanese automakers saw the light, and were selling hybrids – part electric, part gas-powered. These were the real first gas-saving vehicles introduced over here, and they were stealing business away from the North American automakers.

Although all automakers are feeling the pain of the global economic crisis, those foreign to North America are feeling less pain, because they had good leadership which continued to make vehicles for their customers’ needs and wants. The North American automakers on the other hand, completely missed the boat on this one, and are now demanding publicly funded seed money from governments worldwide, otherwise they will put thousands of people out of work.

Losing one’s job ain’t pretty and isn’t something we would wish on even our enemies. But the role of publicly funded governments does not extend to keeping private companies afloat – especially when those companies are to blame for their own mismanagement.

That’s the nature of our capitalistic market-driven society. By having public government funds going into private businesses, it is changing the rules, and making our society a more socialistic, communistic-driven society.

Unless, maybe we are just naturally heading that way. Bring back the Iron Curtain, the Cold War and a society so fearful of the power of its own government that no one dares speak out in protest.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t like the sound of that.