'Is There Not a Single Capitalist Left in Washington DC?'
By JB Williams (12/06/08)
Every passing day brings more news of more financial bailout requests and more congressional promises for more taxpayer funded bailouts. It’s as if the concepts of freedom and capitalism have gone completely missing in Washington DC today.
What started a few weeks ago as a $70 billion dollar mortgage crisis (caused by congressional Democrats) has fast become a multi-trillion dollar international disaster that crosses all industry boundaries. According to the same illustrious leaders in Washington DC who caused all of it to begin with, only printing more play money and putting American taxpayers even deeper in multi-generational debt, is the solution.
Hogwash! - I beg to differ....
The capitalist correction to the mortgage crisis was not to nationalize the banking and mortgage industries as we have, but rather to quickly reverse the past regulatory policies that caused the crisis, force the banks that had made “greedy” loans to provide adequate options to borrowers to re-write those loans to something more sensible, and place a temporary stay on foreclosures to buy enough time for those capitalist corrections to take hold.
Had this been done, we would not now have a trillion dollars in new related bailout debt, countless banks would not be on the brink of collapse, people would be able to remain in their homes with more sensible loans and property values would be stable. There would have been a value write-down of mortgage based securities, but not to the degree that we see now.
Instead, the same idiots in Washington DC who caused the problem by forcing the lending industry to use “affirmative action” underwriting, used the crisis to justify the most massive asset-based power grab in U.S. history and as you can see, it has solved nothing.
Similarly, the taxpayer money poured into shaky banks with the intent of loosening up commercial and consumer credit has resulted in no such loosening of credit.
Now, congressional lefties are chomping at the bit to pour another $34 billion in more taxpayer debt into the American auto industry, which has been failing for decades now, thanks to the labor unions. A bailout request that grew from $25 billion to $34 billion in two short weeks promises to grow even more over the coming months.
However, if there were a single capitalist American still in Washington DC, he would be telling the nation that there is a very simple capitalist solution to the “financial crisis” currently pushing auto makers off of a cliff they have been hanging on by their finger nails for years. They are caught in the cash-crunch caused by the congressional banking crisis.
The capitalist solution is simple... Run a nationwide TAX FREE discounted sale on all U.S. auto inventories, federally backing all auto loans made to buyers with a reasonable credit rating, most of whom would pay their car note, just as they have for years.
If the fed were not so hell-bent upon tax revenues, car salesman, dealers and manufacturers could solve their temporary cash-crunch by simply selling their way out of the corner. This is not an option in Washington DC because it would generate no new tax revenue. But it would also create no new taxpayer debt and it would leave enterprise and industry where it belongs in the private sector.
I make the capitalist case in very basic terms. But surely, you get the point. There are always capitalist solutions to free-market challenges. However, the only solution to failed socialist or communist bankruptcy is “capitalism.” Just ask the people of Russia or China.
Capitalism is not the problem, Washington DC is...
Before Washington law-makers forced mortgage lenders to lend on the basis of “need” rather than the ability to pay, there was no mortgage crisis.
Before labor unions forced American auto-makers to make a lesser product for the highest price on the globe, rendering the entire industry incapable of competing in an ever shrinking world market, there was no auto industry crisis. Guess who labor unions spend millions on in each election. Right... Democrats who promise to “organize” every industry and every city across the country, for the “greater common good.”
Have you noticed that with government assistance comes government conditions, otherwise known as “chains?” Every penny in government (taxpayer) assistance comes with government demands and conditions. To get the pennies, you have to relinquish some freedom.
Congressional offers to help the mortgage, banking, health and auto industries included a set of handcuffs for the industry. Take note...
An Ounce of Common Sense
It’s clear that nobody in Washington DC has an ounce of capitalist common sense. But what about the average American taxpayer who is being bludgeoned to death by tax debt?
At what point will the average American put a stop to the leftist insanity that has all of America in a stranglehold today?
Americans have overlooked the reality that every problem we have was created by idiots in Washington DC. As a result, they continue to look to those same idiots for some magic solution and as each day passes, the only solution Washington knows, is burying Americans deeper and deeper in a debt that can never be paid.
It’s About Jobs Stupid
First, no it isn’t. It’s about FREEDOM!
Yes, we want and need good jobs. There are only two ways to create jobs.
The first is the capitalist method, which leaves industry and enterprise to private investors, inventors, producers and manufacturers for profit. The second is to create more “government” jobs, either by direct government employment, or by government ownership of private industry.
The capitalist method leaves freedom of choice and consequence in the hands of the people, where it belongs. The government method removes individual freedom in the name of some greater common good, all of which can only happen at even more taxpayer expense.
Since the federal government holds the distinct honor of being the most corrupt, inefficient, bankrupt monopoly on earth, is there any reason to trust Washington idiots with another penny of taxpayer funds?
Saving the Auto Industry
Ideally, we’d like to save all legitimate industries and secure all private sector employment opportunities. But there is no means of saving a failing industry. You can only prolong the inevitable, pouring good money down a black hole unless the industry itself sees a need and a method by which to save itself.
Nationalizing the banking and auto industries will not save these industries. It only spreads the ultimate failure and the cost of that failure across the nation of taxpayers.
Tell me which federally run programs have been run well, at a profit? There are none. Not one...
Tell me which members of congress have a track record of turning around failing companies or turning a profit for investors? Members of congress who have any such track records should be speaking up right now. Where are they?
What have Barney Frank, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Chris Dodd, Hillary Clinton, Bill Richardson or Barack Obama ever done in the private sector? The answer is NOTHING, as all of them are career politicians with no experience in business or industry at all.
So what makes any American think that these people have any idea at all, how to save a company, much less an industry, or for heavens sake, and entire economy?
Reality Wins...
No amount of feel-good political rhetoric can change reality or even buy a single cup of Capitol Hill cappuccino. So long as Americans continue to sit quietly by and allowed career Washington morons to pour their future down a bottomless financial pit, there is no escaping the broken socialist state that is being created every step of the way.
It’s silly to expect more from Washington elites, but I have spent 48 years expecting more from my fellow Americans, with whom our founders entrusted the future.
Speak up and put a stop to the insanity at every opportunity, or forever after hold your tongue.
Tell the geniuses in Washington DC to come up with a capitalist solution to our financial challenges, or dig deep into their own pockets to invest in their senseless system of socialism in which no intelligent American would ever invest.
Tell them now!
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