US Auto Makers Nationalization

As reported in the Wall St. Journal: U.S. Could Take Stakes in Big 3 - WSJ.com

This, and the recent financial bailout boondoggle is very reminiscent of the early stages of the downward spiral in Atlas Shrugged, where the government kept stepping in further and further to "save" the industries. It didn't work out too well in that fictional environment, and I don't think we can expect better results in reality either.

Why do we, the taxpayers, have to bail out any failing company, be it a bank or an auto maker? What is wrong with letting these companies declare bankruptcy and get bought up by other private interests? I know it means pain for the auto workers and investors... But it would be short-lived, and if they are still viable entities they'll recover, and the jobs will increase. Or the auto-workers will have to find new line of work (fact of life). The government has no business getting involved at this level.

I've been saying for months that Obama's plan for the economy would be massive government spending increases, and eventually tax increases as well. He's tried to placate some people by putting on hold his tax increase on the "rich", but has made his spending plan clear. He wants to initiate the largest public-works spending spree since 1950. We're in a recession, but rather than incentivize private industry to produce more (e.g. tax cuts for everyone, so people spend more money), he wants to spend more of our federal tax money on government-run projects. Most of these (schools, roads, etc) are not even in the federal purview; they should be handled at the state or even local levels of government.

I see our country inevitably headed toward a more socialistic government, and only hope that it happens fast enough to shock the public into action: In the next major election, I hope we vote the socialists out of office and replace them with people who believe in the principles on which this country was founded!