Bailing out General Motors (GM), TARP, et cetera.

To say we have been bombarded with bad news about the economy is an understatement. To say we have been bamboozled into approving a $700 billion dollar “TARP” program is, perhaps, an overstatement. But for several days they swore up and down they needed the money to take the toxic debt off the balance sheets, and that the U.S. Government might even profit from the deal. Thousands of manhours were spent studying the auction process that was to be used to price the debt, and eventually they concluded that the money would not be used to buy any such debt, but woudl instead be used for something else.

I don’t even know if they had a hearing about using the money for “something else.” And weren’t there supposed to be dire consequences if it was not used to buy the troubled debt? To say there is a crisis of confidence in our government is, perhaps an understatement. Its a bunch of keystone cops taking our tax dollars and mortgaging our future, and it makes me sick.

Now we hear that the auto industry is about to collapse. Well, friends, the auto industry has been collapsing for some time now. As I understand it, a large portion of their problems comes from high costs associated with deals struck with the unions. I’d like to be loud and clear about this – I DO NOT WISH TO ACT AS GUARANTOR TO THE OBLIGATIONS OWED TO THE UNIONS. I did not make the promises, I should not be taxed to keep those promises. Maybe the Unions overreached and caused the the auto dealers to wind up on the verge of collapse. Maybe it wasn’t there fault at all. But one thing is absolutely certain – its not my fault, and I’m not happy about any proposal which uses my tax dollars to fix the problem.

Times are tough. Employees of the auto industry will have to suck it up like everybody else. Take pay cuts, take benefit cuts, suffer job losses. If GM has to file Chapter 11 and reject various contracts and suffer union strikes, so be it. If the unions want to force the company out of business, so be it. Their members can collect unemployment and find jobs behind cash registers, or in the mailrooms of Detroit.

Or, they could grow up, recognize they are part of the problem and can be part of the solution. But they should not be “bailed out.” A bailout is just another word for taking your money and giving it to someone else who has no real claim to your money, except that they perhaps supported politicians who have the ability to pick your pocket.

It is one thing to put money in place to keep the banking system running, so that I can use my ATM card and write my checks, without worrying about there being money on the other side to cover the transaction. Its an entirely different story when you are taking my money to benefit a select industry. I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it any more.

This is One Diver’s Perspective.