Government Enacted, Taxpayer Subsidized Failure

Some parents pay their kids to get good grades. A’s will get, say, $10 and B’s will get $5. I doubt anyone pays for C’s and D’s and I am quite positive no one pays for F’s. An “F” means you failed. That’s OK if you can use it as a motivator to learn, grow, and achieve; but imagine a world where parents paid their kids to fail. There would be nothing but failure.

That is essentially what a bailout is. A bailout is the taxpayer subsidizing corporate failure. Unfortunately, that’s not the whole story.

Now imagine if parents and teachers conspired to give kids all the wrong answers thus causing the failure; then blaming the kid for failing; punishing the kid for failing; then paying the kid for the “F”. What would happen? Not only would the kid be on drugs in an attempt to medicate the confusion away, but he or she would inevitably get worse in school, be completely unable to pass and ultimately be forced to rely on his or her unreliable parents and teachers.

That is what is happening in our markets today. The parents and teachers are the government and the kids are the industries involved. Let me explain starting with the mortgage industry…

Right now the federal government is forcing banks to give loans to people regardless of their ability to pay. People who have a difficult time paying their bills, for whatever reason, also have a difficult time saving money. As a result, there are a substantial number of houses that are 100% (or more) financed. When housing prices dropped, the houses were over-funded and the credit markets froze. (Sure, there are better explanations out there, but you get the general point.) What does the government do? They step in, blame corporate greed, blame Wall Street, and throw your money at it.

Next we have the auto industry. The federal government is forcing auto manufacturers to meet a ridiculous set of fuel efficiency standards called the CAFE standards (Corporate Average Fuel Economy) which forces auto manufacturers to prematurely re-tool their factories in an effort to meet the impossible standards set by the government at a cost of millions of dollars. Now, not surprisingly, they are going broke. What does the government do? They step in, blame corporate greed, blame Wall Street, and throw your money at it.

What’s next? I’ll tell you. Health care is about to be taken over by the feds and run with the same degree of efficiency as every other government-clogged industry. They will call it “fair” and “the right thing to do”, after all; there are millions of people in this country who currently have no health insurance. Frankly, I would rather have no health insurance than Socialism’s brand of health insurance. Check with England, Canada, and Cuba to find out just how wonderful government health care is. I did check and it’s nothing but long lines and diminished quality; not something you want in a hospital. Not to mention the enormous burden placed on the taxpayer by the bloated agency that will no doubt be created.

We must avoid this at all cost. We must act! If we speak out with a loud and unified voice they will have no choice but to listen. If they don’t listen the first time, we will keep pushing and pushing until they do listen. If they refuse to listen, we have the power to fire them and take their place. Let us not stop until they comply or until they are in the soup-lines and we are running the show.