Sergeant Motors?

Like many Americans, I have been watching the drama unfold at the “Big 3″ auto makers.  Will they survive?  Will those who hold our purse strings use our money to prop them up again, hoping the inevitable happens on someone else’s watch?  Will they take bankruptcy and re-emerge lighter, meaner, and ready to compete?  Nobody knows for sure.  It seems to be no secret that most of us object to our tax money being used to prop them up.  It is also no secret, to those who pay impartial attention, that the much problem here is the unions, just as it was with the airlines like Pan Am and Eastern.  Remember them?  They too were once the indisputable leaders of their industries.  The generation coming of age today will know them only from history books.

Yet, interesting as the fate of the domestic auto industry might be, that is not really the point of this bit of mental wandering about. No, what worries me most is the degree to which the state of these companies reflects the state of our entire economy, and, our very nation.

In the 1950’s, Charlie Wilson, then CEO of GM, was (incorrectly) credited with saying that what was good for GM was good for the country.  More recently, Lee Iacocca is credited with saying “As goes General Motors, so goes the nation.”  I am sorry to tell you that both were more right than they probably realized at the time.

The problems we face have so much in common:

• In al cases, making promises for futures payments that would require unprecedented, unrealistic growth to meet.  The auto companies did this through commitments to salaries, pensions and benefits; the government did it through commitments to Social Security, Medicaid, and a plethora of entitlement/safety net programs;  the average American did this through credit card and consumer debt, often for things they did not remotely need, and through mortages, often on houses much larger and grander than required for safe, comfortable living.
• In all cases, once realizing there may be a problem, putting off acknowledgment and corrective action.  Instead, “whistling past the graveyard”, propping things up and hoping for a miracle.
• In all cases, once denial and propping up failed, trying to blame everyone and everything except what we all know were the causes.

Now, I don’t know how long Ford, GM or Chrysler can last.  Nor do I know how long the United States of America, as we have known and loved it, can last.  But, this I do know.  No problem ever got solved by denying its existence, by blaming the innocent, by praying, braying or any other plea to the invisible and the non-existent.

Problems get solved when people step up to them, take responsibility (and take the lumps) for their own contribution, figure out the best thing for all involved, then get on with doing it.  Not just for a few elected officials that damn well knew better, not just for a few business leaders that damn well knew better, not just for the deadbeats who damned well knew better, but for the people who have, and continue to apply their sweat, their minds, and their talents to making this a working enterprise.

I am totally convinced that there is ultimately NOTHING that free, rational people cannot accomplish.  The recent histories of America and Western Europe prove as much.

I am just as totally convinced that the ultimate fate of a bunch of dependent whiners and blame-assigners is to be slaves.  The recent histories of some other countries proves this as well.

We have a choice we all MUST make.  It does not seem nearly as hard a choice as choosing between two candidates almost equally unqualified and unfit to lead this nation.  This is a simple choice.  Will we be free, rational, responsible men and women or slaves?

And, we do NOT need a new government committee to study the situation.

From a governmental view, the whole thing was figured out and written down, about as perfectly as humans are capable of, over 200 years ago.  Lucky us, the actual, original documents still exist.  In fact, we go to great lengths to protect them from physical harm.  Supposedly, we even revere the ideas they espouse.  You see how that has worked out for us.  How about we actually read them, then go on to actually understand what they say and why?  Who can imagine what kind of country might be built on the blueprint they contain?  We all can because we have seen it, have lived it.

From an enterprise view, the whole thing has been figured out and proven over and over until you wonder how anyone could not understand.  Many of you probably believe in a tale about a guy in ancient Israel who fed multitudes from a few fishes and loaves.  While I, personally, have no doubt whatever that this did not happen, I have no problem if some of you choose to believe it.  What I do know for sure is that it is not the sort of thing that happens often, and that there are NO people alive on this earth who have ever seen such a thing.  Yet we all have seen, and most of us participated in, a free economy.

My friends, free, rational people practicing laissez-faire capitalism can do, before your very eyes, what the gods are rumored to do only in mythology.  It works.  End of story.  Why any people would try any other method of providing for the needs of mankind is a greater mystery to me than the origin of the universe.

Yet, many of you don’t believe this simple truth.  Indeed, a lot of you have probably been convinced that laissez-faire capitalism is what caused the current crisis.  For sure there are many who would have you think that way.  I ask you, stop and think… who are the people telling you such?  Could it be the very ones that will do anything, literally anything, to get and keep power over you?  Please read the previous 2 sentences several more times before proceeding.

Is laissez-faire capitalism perfect?  NO!  What is?  Is it better than any, I mean, any, other economic system in the history of mankind?  YES!  What more do you need to know?

There is a side of laissez-faire capitalism that many of those who would enslave you will bring up again and again: it is harsh, it is unthinking, it lacks compassion, worst of all, it is unfair. Lets examine these claims:

• It is harsh.  Totally true.  Those who don’t produce (and those who depend on them) do without, except for the willing generousity of others, or the unwilling confiscation and redistribution of the products of others.  And, I know that there will always be those few who will choose to be dependent slaves rather than free, productive humans.  What to do with them is the topic of another rant – but, I confess it is a real problem.  What happens when you put your hand in a fire is harsh.  What happens when you step in front of a train is harsh.  These things are called “reality”.
• It is unthinking, it lacks compassion.  Of course!  It is a system, not a living creature!
  
• It is unfair.  Of all the claims made against laissez-faire capitalism, this one bothers me most. Practiced without government interference, it is the fairest system ever conceived because it requires and promotes FREE participants.  Do we not all crave freedom more that anything other than life itself?  For sure, not everyone will produce, and be rewarded, at the same rate.  But, how is this unfair?  Is having the government, using its right of force to confiscate your products to give away to others somehow fair?  If so, someone please explain it to this ignorant fool.

So, there you have it.  A simple answer to government, a simple answer to the economy.  And, they both require nothing more than free, rational people who are willing to produce value.  That is all.

Please note that I did not ask for a $500 Billion giveaway for this information.  Freedom, and the means to ensure it, belongs to us all.  If only we will demand what is ours!

If I managed to insult your religious beliefs: I’m sorry but I would otherwise be lying to you.  More to come on that subject because there really is a relationship to the current crisis.

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