Some things I guess I’ll never understand…

So unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know the economy is in the shitter right now.  So unlike the previous administration, President Obama actually wants to take action.  But with things going to hell in a hand basket so quickly, there’s been a pressing need to get something passed sooner rather than later.  When your kitchen is on fire, the firemen pull up and use a large hose to get the job done ASAP before the whole house burns down.  You deal with the water damage in your other rooms later.  I can deal with that.

But what I disagree with is somebody having the balls to tack on an earmark onto any of the recovery/funding bills.  The whole practice is reprehensible, since everybody knew President Obama was not going to pick that battle at this time. It’s like firemen take their axes to all the walls in the bedrooms “just to make sure the fire didn’t spread”.  It’s completely irresponsible. 

I understand that you need to prop up the banking and insurance industry or the whole thing implodes, but for a fraction of the coin that’s being thrown around, they can’t prop up the auto industry?  Now I know that there’s a cascading effect that it’s not just the manufacturers, but their suppliers, too, and it affects millions of people.  And in the current economy, we really don’t need more people out on the street, losing jobs, losing their homes.  I get it.  However, the pensions and health care benefit obligations really are the anchor around the industry’s neck.

But I still have a gripe with the Big Three.  They have NOT been responsive to the market.  Can they build a truck?  Absolutely…they’re among the best in the world.  But they still haven’t figured out how to build a small or medium sized car.  And time and time again, they still fall short compared to what the Japanese manufacturers are cranking out.  So the question is do you bother to bail out the auto manufacturers or let them die?  Somebody else will fill the demand left in the marketplace.  There’s plenty of other auto manufacturers in the world, many of whom already have a manufacturing presence in this country.  Chapter 11 isn’t the end of the world, and it may just be the slap in the face they need to wake up and smell the coffee.  There really needs to be a shift in the way they do business.  And remember that we bailed out the airlines in 2002, the legacy carriers went through the bankruptcy process, and they’re still in business today.  

For all the people that say the auto industry is too critical to fail in this country, I have one question for you: how, as a country, have we managed to survive without the Pennsylvania Railroad???