By engaging in bailout after bailout, government bureaucrats in both parties perpetuate the system that is not working: special interest groups getting special treatment.
Follow the consequences! By subsidizing failed but well-connected losers with a bailout we collectively are confiscating the necessary resources from productive and successful companies and tax paying members of the economy. Effectively, that means the successful work for the unsuccessful. We are considering giving billions to those executives that brought their companies to the brink of irrelevancy.
Such bailouts are a bad idea because the failed company management doesn’t feel the pain as they feel the bonuses when they do what they are supposed to do. The selection by consequences that operate everywhere in life are again short-circuited for these companies and the communities that feed off their inefficiencies. The consequences for bad behavior never come to rest on those that were instrumental in the problem so they don’t learn. Why should we allow the natural consequences of bad behavior in a free market to be aborted in favor of special favors resulting in our representatives selecting who will owe them favors? We shouldn’t !
we can start further upstream that calling/emailing senators after the damage has been done… stop spending money with companies and execs that aren’t getting it done.
the consumer has far more power to reward and punish the behavior of companies than it may think.
we finally punished the auto makers after years of making a crappy product. however, we haven’t punished them enough by taking our hard work (employees) and investments to other companies.
though to do that we all have to confidence that we can move our money AND our manpower. Detroit civilians need to build other industries so they don’t have to wait for washington to punish the companies and force job creation.
perhaps the conditions aren’t right for that. then move. perhaps that’s not possible nor attractive. then start a business online. and so on…
if we keep waiting for the government to fix it all, it probably won’t matter.