Bail or Not To Bail
With the Big Three auto makers now in a plainly visible death spiral,
the automotive bailout debate is kicking into overdrive.
The disagreement hinges on whether a bailout is necessary to support
an important industry or whether the unprofitable dinosaurs of the past
should be allowed to fail as America focuses on an information-age,
service sector, and alternative energy future.
As usual, both sides have it wrong. The government should let the Big Three
fail not because we no longer need an auto industry, but because we
desperately do. What we do not need is the bloated, inefficient auto industry
that we have today. By allowing the Big Three to fail, their capacity will
be turned over to new owners who will be able to acquire the means of
production at fire sale prices and hire workers at globally competitive wages.
The result will be a more efficient auto industry making cars that people around
the world actually want to buy at prices they can afford. Such auto makers could
conceivably be profitable and could become the cornerstone of a manufacturing
renaissance in the United States. In contrast, Ford, Chrysler and GM are never
ending money pits that threaten to swallow a good deal of our economy.
Foreign Policy
- Withdraw from Iraq and all military bases in foreign countries.
- Eliminate international financial and military aid.
Social Issues
- Remove federal restrictions on stem cell research.
- Legalize abortions in all cases.
- Decriminalize all drugs. End prohibition gang violence.
- Discontinue federal affirmative action programs. The government should not look at the color of your skin or what is in your pants.
- Eliminate death penalty for federal crimes.
- Support school vouchers and charter schools.
Give poor parents as much power over the quality of their child's education as rich parents have.
- Support gay marriage, and making marriage a private contract.
Economic Issues
- End Social Security, give bonds, redeemable at age 65, to current Social Security investors.
- End all federal individual and corporate welfare programs.
- Eliminate or decrease spending on almost all federal programs.
- Eliminate income and sin taxes.
- Reduce government regulation of the private sector in order to encourage investment and economic expansion.
- Eliminate all import and export tariffs.
- Eliminate all government protections for bankers and end monetary inflation that raises prices for the poor, the disabled and the elderly, and gives newly printed money to the politically connected and the war machine..
- Debating Central Banking - by Steve Dekorte
Position Statements
