The American Economy, Bailouts and Freedom

Those of us who are watching the soap opera emanating from Capitol Hill these days regarding the bailout of the auto industry are at loggerheads as to what should be done. On the one hand I believe that the damage done to our already wrecked economy by allowing the auto makers to fail would be nothing less than catastrophic. The flip side is not any less unattractive...business as usual.

With the benefit of hindsight, those who want to learn from the mistakes of the past should be able to divine a proper strategy that will allow a modicum of recovery for the industry while simultaneously transforming it into a Twenty First Century juggernaut that will move America ahead of the world once more in the innovation and technology theater of transportation vehicles for the emerging new world. This should be a 'hand up' not a 'hand out' and should come with severe restrictions on the use of any funds loaned to automakers. This goes against my personal philosphy about 'the government that governs best, governs least' but these are extra-ordinary times.

Whether or not the pedantic ideologues and politicians have the guts to make such a leap is in serious question. I have the sense that America is walking in concrete shoes and until it breaks out of them we are doomed to secondary status world wide. Failed social engineering, along with ineptitude across the political spectrum, has ruined this nation and will continue to do so as long as the electorate sees more advantage in having the "nanny state" government that they seem so enamored with, than with a true capitalist economic system. You know, the one in which personal initiative and self determination makes its citizens self sufficient, as opposed to simply putting your hand out and having "U.ncle S.ugar" fill it with increasingly worthless greenbacks. The more government regulates and meddles in the economy, the worse things will get regardless of the good intentions of such meddling.

Free the American entreprenuer and watch what happens. We rose to greatness on the backs of the innovators. The men and women who had a germ of an idea, or who saw a need to be filled and turned it into industry. Those hardy, self motivated people like Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, the Wright Borthers and before them John Jacob Astor and Cornelious Vanderbilt, et. al. Only by unleashing those of us who have the will, ambition and drive to innovate will we be able to rise from our current ash heap. Only by allowing free market innovations and industrial development from those who are driven by the profit motive, and scrapping useless and utterly ridiculous regulations that stifle free enterprise, America can once more become the beacon it once was.

Our competitors in the global economy know this, and they are content to let us self-destruct. All Europe needs to do is 'tsk, tsk' at our politicians and liberal thinkers and the whole thing comes crashing down. Look at nuclear power if you want an example. France has almost 50% of its power generated from nuclear plants, yet the 'earth first' crowd and their liberal supporters have stifled that technology here in the states for what are clearly spurious and unsupportable arguments, and made us even more dependent of fossil fuels. Who are they helping here? By trying to be all all things to all people instead of being the biggest bull in the pasture and doing what needs to be done for ourselves, we have successfully neutered America

Much has been made of Reagan's "trickle down" economics policy, but contrary to all the media bullshit, it works. When people in the mold of say, a Bill Gates, are free to think up, develop and market their ideas without onerous government intervention and regulation, creating not only new industries but jobs and the manufacturing capabilities that those industries bring, the economy will once more go into overdrive. That is true 'trickle down economics.' FREE THE AMERICAN SPIRIT and watch what happens!

But that's just one man's opinion.