Chop Off that Camel's Nose
Jim Babka, President
Quote of the Day: "Security is mostly superstition." -- Helen Keller (1880-1968)
Subject: Bailouts for trucking companies?!!!
When we predict bad results from new government programs some people tell us our fears are exaggerated, or misinformed. It happened when we opposed the Iraq war with our "Truth About War" website, and dared to claim that Hussein had NO weapons of mass destruction.
But we were right.
Recently, many said we were wrong to oppose the TARP bailouts. It was a crisis after all. Sadly, our fear that TARP would be the proverbial camel's nose in the tent, seems also to be coming true. Get this...
A trucking firm, YRC Worldwide, has applied for a TARP bailout (see the third item in this linked blog post).
Will they get the $1 billion they're asking for? Many say no, but we're not so sure. Here's why...
YRC's problem is its union pensions, not its trucking business. The Wall Street Journal says "roughly half of YRC's contributions to a multi-employer union pension fund cover the costs of retirees who never worked for the Overland Park, Kan., company." This matters because...
The Democrats, like the Republicans, work for big special interests. Unions are among the most important clients Democratic politicians have. So you can expect the Democrats to bailout unions, just as the Republicans wanted to bailout banks.
We're not taking sides. Many bad decisions have been made by all the BIGS -- big business, big labor, and big government, but . . .
YOU shouldn't have to pay for any of those mistakes! Instead...
The politicians need to let the bankruptcy process do its curative work. This process wouldn't necessarily . . .
* Close a company or a union, or . . .
* Leave anyone holding an empty bag
The bankruptcy process works because it restructures payments and/or distributes assets to creditors in a fair manner. It also gives people an incentive to be careful in the future.
Businesses and/or whole industries routinely survive bankruptcy to become stronger than before. This happens because the bankrupt companies improve or get purchased by better firms. For instance, as Professor Mark J. Perry points out on his excellent Carpe Diem blog . . .
564 American car makers have either failed or been purchased by other companies over the past 100 years. This process of supposed destruction has been highly creative, making the auto industry stronger, not weaker. Imagine where we'd be if these companies had been bailed out, or allowed to use tax money to avoid being purchased.
Failure, mediated by the bankruptcy process, is an ESSENTIAL part of a vibrant healthy economy. We need to purge the toxins from our economy, not perpetuate them. We need to end TARP, and all other bailouts. Let's cut off this camel's nose before the whole beast comes in and topples the tent.
Please use DownsizeDC.org's quick and easy Educate the Powerful System to tell your Congressional employees to oppose bailouts.
Use your personal comments to specifically oppose applying the TARP program to YRC Worldwide, and for TARP to be repealed.
Our goal this month is to pound Congress with more than 31,730 messages. That means we must hit Congress with x,xxx messages today.
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Jim Babka, President
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