Re: [Pen-l] Lemon Socialism

["Jim Devine" <jdevine03@xxxxxxxxx>]

Max B. Sawicky wrote:
> This is shaping up to be one of the big problems for Obama,
> the pressure to buy white elephants.
>
> At least in part the auto  bailout is a bailout of management and the union,
> not of the industry.  Profitable foreign companies make cars in the U.S.,
> don't they?  They may not all, or any, be union jobs, but they are jobs
> people dearly would like to have.  Obviously transition is a bitch for
> the workers involved.
>
> The more likely and risky alternative is some half-assed effort to subsidize
> 'green' cars that consumers, bless them, don't want.  Or to just subsidize
> muddling along.
>
> I've nothing against a subsidy to keep the companies afloat for the time
> being, but if it doesn't result in a lasting solution there will be a
> political
> price to pay later on.

how about helping the auto industry with low-interest loans (or even
loans at market interest rates or loan guarantees, if the problem is
credit rationing)? or by buying equity in the auto companies? Yes, I
know the latter involves partial nationalization, which is unpopular.

if there were significant carbon taxes, the blessed consumers would
have more sustained interest in "green" cars.
-- 
Jim Devine /  "Nobody told me there'd be days like these / Strange
days indeed -- most peculiar, mama." -- JL.
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