I just came across this article in the NYT.  Great thoughts about what the Government should do with GM.  Sorkin does a great job summarizing the situation with GM and why Chapter 11 is a better job.  Check it out.

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So I’ve been reading on CNBC about the big three automakers and their visit to Congress in an attempt to get a $25 billion bailout.  Next, they are talking about the Homebuilders potentially looking for a bailout.  The government has bailed out financial institutions, mortgage companies, everyone.  This is infuriating and ridiculous.  I have gradually watched as individuals in society abdicate more and more of their responsibility to other, to the government, to anyone but where it belongs…with themselves.  They do this through lawsuits (What?  My coffee was hot?  it could burn me?  I’m suing) to looking to the government to bail them out of bad choices.  However, I really didn’t expect to see businesses start to go to the government and expect money because they made bad choices.  Business has been and always will be about spending as little money has possible while planting and cultivating an idea, and then turning around and selling that idea for as much money as possible.  That requires sound decision making, intelligent choices, sometimes doing without…in fine, WORK.  Now, we see these CEOs who make way too much money for the hole they have dug, begging the government for a handout and threatening that the auto industry will never be the same.

Well, I can’t help but wonder if that isn’t the idea.  Yes, it would suck for all those people to lose their jobs, and yes, it would suck for the economy for a time.  However, doesn’t anyone believe in innovation and business cycles any longer.  The industry for the cotton gin dried up eventually.  I don’t see much of a demand for typewriters any longer.  When was the last time you saw a commercial for a new and innovative VCR?  Come on…get real!  I’m not saying that cars and trucks are past us, rather that you either innovate or die.  How can these companies expect that the same thing they were doing 10 or 20 years ago still works today.  Make cuts, change marketing, develop better product, stay in front of the curve rather than riding the back side.  And for heaven’s sake, grow a set and face the fact that you made wrong decisions and fix it.

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Regardless of who you plan to vote for today, just get out and do it.  It isn’t just a right, it is a responsibility to step up and voice your opinion of who you think best will lead our country, state, community.  The more the citizens neglect their duty, the more we move to a country run by special interest groups who have their own agenda.  Get out an vote!

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