"Jim Stewart" wrote in message
.. .
F. George McDuffee wrote:
Note that in the process of developing these plans over two
weeks, the projected "bridge loans" needed increased from 25
billion to 38 billion.

Now if this were most any other company, they
would default on their loans and pension plan,
go into receivership, be sold off for a fraction
of their current worth, and start producing product
with a labor rate of $40/hr instead of $75/hr.
Which, of course, would be the best thing for
the majority of the country.

Instead, the government, i.e. us, will continue
to flush money down the gopher hole without fixing
the problem.


Right, the solution to the problems facing the economy is simply more free
market capitalism. Of course, we first have to pretend that system isn't
what got us in trouble to begin with. Then we let the market decide who
survives and who fails. The only problem with that, and why the government
is doing everything but that, is because if we let the companies fail the
cost to the country will be so high as to make the numbers we see now seem
like peanuts.

Take the 30 or 40 billion or is it 75 to 100 billion needed to keep the
"big" three auto makers in business. If you let them all fail, which they
would without bailout loans, the price to the country in lost tax revenue,
raised unemployment benefits, and numerous other related losses would wind
up costing ten times that. The majority of the country would have to pay for
that, which I doubt it would like. So take your pick. Help the companies
out, which will cost billions. Or let them go bust and pay ten times that
much and toss millions of people out of work, which will send the economy
spiraling down like nothing seen since the 1930s. To a rational person the
choice is easy. Why else do you think the government is willing to pony up
so much dough? Because they feel sorry for the big three? Hardly. It's just
that they know it will cost far less to the economy and the taxpayers to
keep the auto makers in business than for them to go broke and pay that
cost. That's why they are going to bail them out. The choices are both bad
but one is a lot worse than the other.

Hawke