Potpouri Politics...

I have avoided writing politics in my past but in today's economic situation it can't help but creep in sooner or later... I have been following with some interest the plight of our automakers, especially these past several years, because they are a microcosim of our economy. Today they are virtually bankrupt, receiving government bailout monies, and not changing failed practices still.
Years ago our automakers had the opportunity to observe our foreign competitors and change themselves to be competitive. Honda and Toyota were producing better quality products cheaper, better engines that were lighter resulting in more efficiency and mileage, and their plants were half the size and people but turning out the same production. As American automakers tried to modernize and keep up our unions throttled the efforts by bulking at the idea of losing jobs or concessions. GM created a "job bank" for those employees whose jobs were eliminated. They still carried employees who were basically dead weight, plus the cost of retirees' health care and pensions... They spend about 7 billion a year on retired or past employees... Meanwhile our foreign competitors opened factories here, in the US with non-union workers and none of the dead weight. They are leaner, more cost effective, and profitable.
Today Detroit is half the population as in it's glory days in the 1950's. Houses that sold ten years ago in excess of a hundred thousand dollars can be bought for ten thousand or less. The future of our auto industry is in shambles, and the unions still refuse to concede. So what's the answer?

Our current administration (and our elected officials on both sides of the aisle) seems to think bailouts are the answer. My question is: "What problem has ever been solved by throwing money at it?" If history has taught us anything it is that unregulated spending only creates bigger problems. The "temporary social programs" that were instituted in the 1930's to pull us out of the depression has cost our nation hundreds of billions of dollars since, for those temporary programs still exist today with minimal positive effect. Our welfare system is a mess, Social Security has been in trouble for years... "Temporary" programs that threw money at a problem. (Another of many examples: the Department of Energy was established in the early 1970's with one mandate: Reduce our dependence on foreign oil. Today that department employs over one hundred thousand people and spends billions of dollars and we are more dependent on foreign oil than ever).
I believe that giving money to people without the ability to earn it robs them of self-worth, and eventually self-esteem. People who earn their way have a pride in themselves, and a sense of worth. We've stolen that from thousands and thousands of people. If people need money to get through a rough patch I say okay, let's help them out, but let them earn it. Let them feel like they deserve what they're getting.
I also believe that once upon a time unions had a place and a purpose in our society. Today our government has assumed the role that unions once played- keeping business fair. Instead, today unions need to be regulated as much as industry. Today unions have outlived their usefulness and now are strangling free comerce. We cannot compete, as a nation, with other countries if we have to rely on union labor. Unions claim to be for the "worker" but are often more corrupt than any business. There is not the incentive to excel within the structure of the union, for individual effort is not recognized within the union contract. Quality of work is established at the level of the weakest union member. It is the opposite result of the concept of competition for better quality products in a free enterprise system.

Perhaps the answer can be found in the basic tenets of the free enterprise system on which our country was founded. The efficient survive, the inefficient die. Instead of throwing money at the failed policies of our automakers, instead of bailing out the failed practices of our banks let them fail. In their place new, more efficient, better managed and regulated businesses would emerge. And our economy would begin to heal, would strentghen, would lead once again. Instead of throwing money at our problems we should begin to reward excellence again, to pay for incentive. We should allow non-union businesses to grow without being picketed or harrassed by union employees who feel threatened by those who acheive excellence on their own individual merit, who don't rely on the stranglehold of a union contract for "automatic" raaises or advancement.
We should also reduce the size of our government. We have hundreds of thousands of governmental employees, only a small fraction of whom are elected. Our government is highly inefficient and needs to be overhauled. As any industry, the larger it grows the more likely the accumulation of "dead weight" is to occur. And, as any company that desires to be profitable knows, purges are necessary to remain a profitable and viable entity. We are leaving our children and grandchildren incredible debt- much could be allieviated within our lifetime by simply reducing the size of government and purging some of its dead weight...

We won't see any of these changes however, for the very people who need to fix the problem are the very ones who are guilty of corrupting it. To fix our economy right would spell the end of the golden goose that so many politicians have reaped the benefits from... Change takes time; without change to correct the failed policies money is just a tempory "quick fix" and when it's spent the problems remain...
On a more personal level, we need to learn to live within our means. We have lived extravagantly, in the eyes of the world, for a long time. We accumulate debt, not for necessities but for our pleasures. We need to learn to live wisely, to save for difficult times, and learn to curb recreational spending. Or we all better learn to speak Chinese, for they will end up buying all our debt and owning our country...