New Year Thoughts on the Bank and Car Manufacturing Fiasco's

American corporations (i.e. CEO and stockholders) are only interested in intellectual rights. That is where the money is. They can own and idea, and no one can make money on that idea unless they are payed for it. Think about that for a moment.

So, since the REAL money is in the idea, they hand over manufacturing rights to the lowest bidder, so that they can maximize profits from that idea. Manufacturing is expensive in America because, well, we Americans have gotten accustomed to a certain way of life, like being paid what we are worth. You see, we live by the radical notion that if the company we work for benefits from our input in the form of labor, that we should be paid for that labor. CEO's and stockholders can't have that. Why should they pay you or me for our contribution to the company's wealth, when they can send those manufacturing jobs to countries who have none of that nasty regulatory oversight or unions? Why not send manufacturing jobs overseas, where those ideas can be manufactured for pennies by people for a bowl of rice, and without the expectation of fair wages or medical benefits; where the exploitation of workers expands to children and slave/prison labor? Why not send manufacturing jobs to countries whose leaders shoot unionists and human rights activists on sight?

How could the American worker compete against that?

For all of our talk of freedom, fairness, human rights, justice and "The American Way," this is the kind of country we have become. Why? Because the people who run this country are morally corrupt, and we have tolerated corruption in ever aspect of American life. We get the country we deserve, because we don't question or argue, or write letters or demand accountability from our elected officials. The only way to get elected to office is to be the sort of person who enjoys a good cover up or who really loves "getting over" on other people, and that is exactly what they have done. They have gotten over on us.

Why I changed my mind about bailing out the car companies.

One of the most outspoken senators against bailing out the "Big Three" is Republican Senator Richard Shelby, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee. I began to question how a representative of one of the poorest states of the United States could be against the idea of supporting an American institution employs (in one way or another) so many Americans - and so many of his own constituents.

As it turns out, the method of "following the money" still works. Here is what Republican Senator Richard Shelby has been up to for the last few years. He's been a very busy man.

Alabama lured automakers to the state by offering them billions of dollars in tax incentives (some might call these bribes, or even bailouts), which sounds good on the surface until you realize that those tax incentives are tax dollars that haven't yet been collected from the public. He has promised money before he even had it. Money that could have been used for Alabama's infrastructure, providing medical care for the poor, libraries and schools. To add insult to injury, the recipients of these public dollars were Mercedes Benz, Honda and Toyota.

Not angry yet? Some of those millions of dollars went to pay for the land that was GIVEN to Mercedes Benz. Some to improve on the land so that Mercedes Benz could build there, and yet even more surprising was his offer to train employees for Mercedes Benz to the tune of 150k PER EMPLOYEE, so that they could go to work at Mercedes Benz for $16 per hour. Shelby also promised that the Alabama government would buy 2500 automobiles from Mercedes. Shouldn't they b buying American cars?

In Alabama there is a $30,000,000 (please note all the zeros) training center for Honda. In fact, the federal government has provided assistance to these foreign car manufacturers and Shelby, along with other members of the Alabama Congressional delegation, helped to make that happen.

The total amount of "incentives" given to Mercedes, Honda, Toyota and Hyundai in Alabama in the last 15 years totals more $750 million. These companies hire all non-union workers. The end result is that Alabama is one of the largest growing states in the car manufacturing sector. Unfortunately, they are all foreign controlled, and the American worker is denied union oversight. This is a form of legal exploitation. Unlike in the past, where Americans seemed beyond exploitation, we have entered a new chapter in American history, where no one but the elite is exempt from a life of hard, back breaking work without much compensation to speak of.

Of course, Shelby denies that his state's "incentives" (read: handouts) are relevant to the subject at hand, which is the slow demise of the American auto industry.

The American Dream is being sold by politicians like him.

The solution? First, we never should have bailed out the banks in the first place. If the banking industry is so important to American financial well-being it should be tax payer owned and highly regulated. The money should have instead gone to the "big three" so that they can become productive again. Furthermore, congress should fascilitate the transition to turn those companies into worker owned institutions. Of course, the money should be payed back to the tax payer at an interest.

Why isn't anyone asking the hard questions?

The argument about whether to loan money to the auto industry has been mostly focus on labor. Why isn't anyone asking questions about squandering money, or making bad investments instead? While they are in Washington begging for money, why not ask the CEO's to account for their role in the subprime loans they made from the financing branches of their companies? Why didn't they advocate universal health care for their employees? Instead, the UAW has been blamed for most of the American car manufacturing woes.

Congress is being used to bust unions under the guise of economic stewardship. What you are not hearing from the media are the stories about how the UAW has taken cuts, and even offered to pay for their own health care beginning in 2007. But there is no coverage of this. One must ask themselves why.

In contrast, the people responsible for this recession and soon to be depression are the banks, and we gave them 700 billion dollars without any oversight or restriction. If anyone should NOT have received our tax dollars it is the bankers who created this mess. Hey, did you hear about the millions that AIG is given their officers to "stay on?" Where do you think this money is coming from?

We've made a huge mistake by bailing out the banks and not asking the American car manufacturers the right questions. A paranoid person might think the entire thing is being manufactured artificially to create more wealth in the hands of the few and the expense of the many.

Why isn't anyone demanding ownership of these banks? We have bought them with our money. Money that would have otherwise gone to our country's infrastructure, universal health care and education.

So as we sit around dreaming of a better world, as so many of us often do at the beginning of a new year, I think of an America where we, The People, can be a little better than the political and corporate profiteers who exploit us. I think of how grand it would be if we set an example for the sort of people we wanted to be and make a b-line for the destiny which is rightfully ours. We an be the the sort of people other people wish to be... again.

Let's clean our house. Let's ask the hard questions. Let's ask for accountability.