A friend, and reader of this blog, scoffed that Obama was not "pushing for state ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods." Therefore he is not a socialist.
Well, since that late February posting, we have seen Obama making major strides towards just that:
- The United States now owns nearly all of one of the largest insurance companies in the country, AIG.
- The US owns 40% of CitiCorp, one of the largest full service banks in the world.
Time and time again, General Motors Corp.'s board of directors reaffirmed its support for Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner, even as the company piled up billions of dollars in losses and begged for government loans to stay alive.Here, we have the case of the president of the United States telling a private corporation to fire its CEO. I don't care who the president is or what the purpose of the firing might be, IT IS NOT THE JOB OF THE PRESIDENT TO FIRE A PRIVATE CITIZEN AT A PRIVATE COMPANY. EVER!
If the CEO is doing something illegal, and it comes to the prez' attention, he would call for the Attorney General to investigate and prosecute, if needed. Even then, the president would not fire the CEO.
Further, Obama required that GM further consolidate its brands in exchange for 60 days of working capital.
So now we have the president of the United States telling a private corporation how it should operate? Now Obama is an expert in auto manufacture and sales?
After all, Obama knows best.
Obama turned to Chrysler and demanded the company merge with another company.
Fiat? Will Chrysler's collaborating with Fiat drive you to purchase that PT Cruiser anytime soon?The president's auto task force said Chrysler needs to partner with the Italian car company Fiat, which has "committed to building new fuel-efficient cars and engines right here in the United States," Obama said in a speech at the White House.
"Fiat is prepared to transfer its cutting-edge technology to Chrysler," Obama said.
32 Review Centre Fiat Brava 1.4SX ReviewsThese are two cases where the federal government is using its powers to extort private companies to engage in business operations of which the government approves.Good Points: When it works its nice and easy to drive.
Bad Points: had constant problem witn starting and idling many repairs done at different garages but problem always comes back. I'll never never buy a Fiat Bravo again.Looks nice, spacious and comfortable but mechanics and clutch with gear box are very unreliable. Not reliable in terms of parts. Electric faults come up every week.
And this comes barely a week after Obama made moves to control salaries of private citizens in private companies:
From the outset of the Obama administration, officials and European leaders have disagreed over how much to limit pay. And Mr. Geithner has discouraged the administration from imposing across-the-board limits on compensation of all employees at troubled companies receiving federal assistance and more burdensome pay restrictions at healthy institutions that the administration is trying to encourage to take government money so they can increase lending.Obama wanted to have the power to set salaries for ALL employees at companies he decides are "troubled."
If these aren't giant leaps towards European-style socialism, I don't know what is.
2 comments:
Eh. Look, without getting into the merits of the auto bailout itself (I can't even bluff my way through a comment on that), you seem to be ignoring the fact that We The People (who, like it or not, are represented by the president) are giving these companies something like $35 billion. So it's not so completely outrageous that We get to call a few shots. Investors, venture capitalist, even lowly shareholders, do this all the time.
If the president picked up the phone one day and tried to have me fired, that would be an outrage. If the taxpayers gave my employer billions of dollars and asked that I be fired as a condition of giving the money, and my company accepted those terms, that would seem reasonable (once I got over being pissed about getting fired, of course).
If the Dems start handing out hundreds of billions of tax dollars with absolutely no strings attached, I imagine I'll be reading some denunciations here, yes?
This whole move of the US government groping into private business is the disquieting issue here.
Exactly for the reason that the government does not have the ability to make decisions based on what's best for the company. That's not an indictment, more an expression of reality.
The government has more constituents to please and more interests to protect.
Ideally, a private company has its own survival at heart, be that through increasing sales, wooing investors, or what they deem is most beneficial.
Start getting the gummint involved, with the politics that invariably come, that's when we start getting into trouble.
Let GM and Chrysler face the possibility of going bankrupt. Perhaps that would spur some of the same decisions that Obama is forcing. Maybe it will invalidate the burdensome union contracts that may play into the financial woes; maybe that will allow the companies to close dealerships (which I am told, but cannot confirm, they cannot do because of legal restrictions).
Promise them loads of free money, they won't fix up their own act.
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