the official blog of the evergreen freedom foundation

Chumps and chiselers - Steamed are you?

Posted by Scott "The Piper" St. Clair - December 28, 2008

It's in the nature of a chump to get chiseled.  As P.T. Barnum said, "There's a sucker born every minute."  But the American people, when it comes to this stupid Big Three bailout thing, aren't chumps, nor are we suckers.  But we are getting chiseled.
 
Repeatedly, polling data cited on this blog (here and, for the Seattle-Tacoma area, here too) demonstrated significant majorities of us opposed to bailing out the automakers and their partner in ineptitude, the United Auto Workers.  Yet, we are getting played for suckers and treated like chumps.  And there is a chiseler in the mix.
 
Heck, even a similar percentage of Canadians - Canadians, of all people! - oppose their government giving roughly US $3 billion to the Big Three.  When Canadians oppose government propping up a company, then you know its beyond all hope.
 
Maybe the Bush Administration meant well in its efforts to pony up up $17.4 billion in Troubled Assets Relief Program funds to the Big Three, and by extension, the UAW, an effort that caused me to throw in the towel on the administration.  But as I live and breathe, it might as well have sent the money in response to a plea from the Nigerian Oil Minister for all the good it will do in promoting any serious reforms out of Detroit.
 
Right after hearing that the green was grabable, the UAW reneged on its pledge to align autoworker wage and benefit packages closer to those of foreign-owned, but US based, competitors.  Gotcha! 
 
Talk about a chisel! 
 
As any old collective bargaining hand will tell you, the worst thing that you can be called is a chiseler.  Yet isn't that exactly what the UAW is doing?  Begging for bucks with a reforming refrain only to do a little promisory bailout of its own once it got its hands on the dough? Hold your nose and read about it here.
 
To add insult to injury, all the while the back-room bailout machinations were taking place, the UAW was holding onto it's storied $6.4 million Black Lake, Mich. designer golf club and retreat, a money-losing siphon of union members' dues money that itself needs constant bailouts.
 
Of course, it does take two to tango, so not all the blame belongs to the unions.  To be fair and non-partisan, management of the Big Three are the morons who agreed to all those outrageous wages, hours and conditions in the first place.  They could have said no, but instead they not only said yes, they said it with pretty please. 
 
So a pox on all their houses!
 
But what's to be done?  Well, from where I sit it's a little hard to say since lobbying Congress isn't something we can do a lot of without getting into somewhat of a non-profit, non-partisan pickle.
 
But if I were you, which of course I am not...but if I were...then you might go to any one of the several on-line petitions against the Big Three bailout that are cropping up.  Like the one here or here or here.  Lots of options from which to choose.
 
Then you can let your Senators or Member of the House of Represenatives know exactly what you think of all this monkey business - and tell them in no uncertain terms.  Don't know who to contact?  Find out here. 
 
Let your increasingly built-up steam vent!
 
The Piper
 

Thoughts?   Add Comment -

Bubba said on Dec 29 2008 at 9:55am
This big three bailout reminds me of a sinking boat, you can keep on bailing water out, but it is probably better to get a life vest on and let the boat sink.

km said on Dec 29 2008 at 5:35pm
Piper: Is this the bailout that didn't pass Congress, but has been instituted through presidential order? If it is, shouldn't you be urging people to take their concerns up with the president?

Bubba: There are thousands of people on board this "boat" to which you refer. You seem to be content to let them drown, so long as you have a life vest. I doubt you are that hard hearted, so I look forward to your clarification.

Bubba said on Dec 30 2008 at 9:57am
km: So where do we draw the line then? I do feel bad for these folks, but what about all the other Americans suffering from this economic crisis? I am sure all of us know someone who has lost a job because of this economic crisis. Who gets the bail-outs and who do not? Are only the big three qualified for a bail-outs? How about small businesses that are closing their doors because of the crisis, who bails them out? What about people who have made bad borrowing decisions and have overextened themselves? Do we bail them out too?

There are some that really don't care what is going on with the economy (i.e. WFSE) as long as they get theirs.

Honestly, my point is that if you do not get to the root of the problem, you will never fix it. And since band-aids are the governments preferred treatment, they better get a bunch of them ready.

km said on Dec 30 2008 at 10:52am
Bubba: Now that was well stated! I knew you had more humane concerns. Indeed, where do we draw the line.

We are clearly not a free market economy and haven't been since the early 20th century. We've dabbled in market control and stimulation for some time and what we now have is truly a mixed economy; part free market and part controlled market. That history will surely influence our choices.

We've historically looked to help the big industries with loan/bailout funds in the past. Remember the Lockheed bailout in California? Those have been "emergency" measures and have been justified in the past by the horrendous ripple effect lost jobs will have on the overall economy. Right choice? I'm not sure, but that's what we've done.

The small businesses don't get bailout help, but they do get small business loans backed by the government. We help them get started, but historically we've not done much to bail them out. Not sure why that is, but I imagine the bureaucracy that it would take to monitor, identify, verify, and deliver those kinds of funds might be prohibitive.

As for the people who made bad borrowing decisions, we've really played a substantial role in creating the climate in which their poor decisions were made. Sounds to me like you feel we own them some help, though I'm not sure we do. I know it's not much, but we have provided liberal bankruptcy procedures. Getting re-established is easier in America than most of the rest of the world. Kind of lame, but it's all I can think of right off hand.

And you're right, we've not been doing much about the root of the problem!