Are We Going to Pay Other People's Car Payments?

While bankruptcy was the best and established route, Congress chose to bail out irresponsible companies and reward irresponsibility using tax payer money. General Motors secured billions in federal bail out and is requesting billions more. Last week, GM announced that, for anyone purchasing a car in the month of April, it will make customer payments, up to $500, for nine months in the event the customer loses job

If General Motors was doing this using their own money, no questions could be asked. But General Motors received the bailout money from "we the taxpayers," essentially every hard-working citizen of this country and is using this money to fulfill this announcement. And many such hard-working citizens may not like to see their money being given away in a socialistic style to people who lose their jobs but got expensive cars just before such an incident, something they should not have purchased if they did not have sufficient savings to back themselves up in case of a job loss. Isn't this like saying - go ahead and buy the car, irrespective of your current job security position or bank balance situation , make irresponsible purchases and hard-working tax payers will make your payments when you cannot?

There are millions fuming already that the government is forcing them to pay the mortgage payments of irresponsible people who in the first place lied about their income on mortgage application just to get a loan and buy a house that is much above their affordability. There are millions fuming already that the government is forcing them to make the mortgage payments of irresponsible people who did not think before taking on Adjustable Rate mortgages and now find themselves in a self-created crisis. There are millions fuming already that they made all responsible decisions in regard to their house purchase, but while they are receiving zero help of any sort in their mortgage ( which they are still paying responsibly working two jobs a day) ,they are being forced to pay for their irresponsible neighbor's mortgage too. There are millions already fuming that the congress is asking banks to rewrite existing contracts with regard to mortgage payments of irresponsible few, an act which is unethical.

Given these, why should we allow GM to make such a socialistic announcement rewarding the irresponsible using the money of responsible hard working citizens?

In the AIG case, the congress showed it will not investigate the practices of the company or the brain-storm existing contracts like bonus deals before sanctioning the bailout money. And the congress showed that, just to cover-up their mistakes, they will rewrite pre-existing bonus contracts indirectly, by taxing at close to one hundred percent a selected / hand-picked few ,a questionably unconstitutional/unethical act.

Should we be surprised if the congress turns a blind eye to feelings of hardworking citizens who hate to see their hard-earned money go to help the irresponsible few in their mortgage or car payments? After all , Congress clearly wants to reward everyone irresponsible, individual or business and punish the responsible hard-working few and make them pay for the former. After all, Congress seems to be putting us on the road to "From the people based on their ability, to the people based on their needs". .

Reference: http://www.money.cnn.tv/2009/03/31/news/companies/ford/index.htm