Obama pledges $4b in aid for Detroit automakers<\/a><\/p>\nAfter nearly eight years of getting little or no attention from the White House, it seems as though Detroit’s automakers will be a major focus the 2008 Election. With the economy looking worse by the day, lawmakers in Washington have been kicking around the idea of a second economic stimulus package to get people shopping again, and Mowtown’s lawmakers want in on the money.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Years ago, the Japanese suffered an extended recession because they did this very thing, only on a larger scale. Bankruptcy was considered a national dishonor. Good money was sent after bad; public money at that.<\/p>\n
Over the long haul, our economy is much more resilient because we (at least those of us that understand economics and the free enterprise system) understand that failed management teams or business models should not be put on life support. The talent and capital should be free to seek its best and highest use – and without delay. That is why our<\/em> recessions are typically limited in length and in fact many times our economy comes roaring back afterward.<\/p>\nNo one celebrates<\/em> the Enrons or the WorldComs of the world but we are strengthened by the lesson and can at least take comfort in the fact that the suffering and devastation\u00a0ended as soon as possible.<\/p>\nPutting our automotive industry on life support will only delay the inevitable. Ford, GM and Chrysler need to reinvent themselves or get out of the way. Don’t think that large trucks and SUV’s sitting on dealership lots is their only<\/em> competitive disadvantage. They suffer far more from\u00a0a legacy of arrogance and overpriced labor and benefits force fed by unions acting in their own interest, and not that of\u00a0their members or the domestic automotive industry.<\/p>\nPresumed Republican nominee John McCain opposes the idea of federally backed loans, but he does support tax breaks to those that purchase fuel efficient vehicles and a $300M in prize money for electric battery powered vehicles<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Obama’s proposal is either politically-motivated,\u00a0ignorant or most likely both. Obama, having no other tools at his avail, thinks the answer is government welfare. McCain understands that the best way to stimulate our economy is to incent innovation and new<\/em> solutions.<\/p>\nAs the economy is almost surely to become the electorate’s chief concern, McCain would be well served to exploit this opportunity to explain to Mr. Obama how and why capitalism\u00a0works.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Barack Obama is proposing $4 Billion in aid to the automotive industry, aid that John McCain is opposed to, and for good reason. Obama pledges $4b in aid for Detroit automakers After nearly eight years of getting little or no attention from the White House, it seems as though Detroit’s automakers will be a major […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":228,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-campaign-08","category-conservatism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/228"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2918\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}