Thought on the GM bankruptcy

While I hear words like socialist and fascist thrown around by the drones on talk radio, the reality is that the GM bankruptcy and government takeover are symptoms of a problem which has been festering for decades. Beginning in the 1970's when airlines were deregulated, companies began to get larger and larger through mergers and political connections, so that they help political sway over the "representatives of the people" in this country.

As this political control deepened, the companies became more and more inefficient, such that the firms began extorting money from government in the form of bailouts and favorable deals to avoid bankruptcy. Arguments such as the loss of jobs, the loss of money, that there would no longer be an American company leading in x industry, these canards all spewed forth from firms like GM, United, Chrysler, Ford, etc. Chrysler was the first to go with tin cup in hand to beg for an monetary indulgence for their sin of making poor quality cars, and Iaccoca got his wish for $1.5 billion in loan guarantees. In the 1980's there were bank bailouts such as the Continental Illinois National Bank and the S&L scandal (not to be confused with the SNL scandal, how can a show that once had Adam Sandler and Chris Farley now be so unfunny). In the 1990's there were scandals which were covered up by the media such as the sale of oil from the naval reserves to a company with intimate ties to the vice president's family. The new decade brings with it TARP, the GM and Chrysler bailouts, the stimulus package(mostly a state government and social program bailout, along with bailouts of alternative energy producers by keeping the PTC in place).

This crony capitalism has been going on since the early days of the US, when men like Leland Stanford used connections to government to buy land where the railroads would be built to profit immensely. There has never been, and never will be a truly free market. Anyone who tells you otherwise is naive or trying to get something out of deregulation.