It's Only Fair

There are three kinds of business, private, private / government, and government.

Examples of private / government would be when a private company, such as General Motors, get taken away from the private owners and becomes a mix of Union and Government. This was very popular with Stalin. There actually is a lot written by the Stalinist followers about this very subject.

The USPS, AMTRACK, DMV, Medicare are examples of government run business. Everyone has a horror story or two about these. Unlike with a private business, you have very little recourse when the government overcharges you or somehow makes your life miserable.

Then there is the dying breed, private business. This is where innovation comes from. It also is run on a consumer basis, if you the consumer isn't happy, the private business will fail. It is also market driven, if no one wants your goods or services, the private business will fail. It is also cost conscience. In private business, both your operating cost and and your product cost must be kept in line to make a profit.

Profit is a word the government doesn't like. If you make a profit, these days you are somehow evil. It is a rather new concept, but seems to be the catalyst for much of what the government is doing these days.

Profits allow you to pay your employees, pay your taxes, expand production, hire new workers, donate in your community, sponsor little league teams. Private business is good for the economy. It also creates competition.

Competition is good because the consumer has a choice of a variety of products, in various pricing ranges. You can but an I pod or a Zuni, it is your choice. Or neither if you like.

Going back to the government business, they do not operate under the profit generating business model. They operate under the subsidy model. Which means they receive tax money to keep them running.

AMTRACK is an excellent example. It has not made a dime in profit since its inception. It does receive billions in tax dollars every year to keep it operating.

The USPS doesn't run on a profit model either. They are in fact losing money on a daily basis.

Now that the UAW has partnered with the government to run GM, and Chrysler, it is hard to find out how much money in tax revenue is being floated their way. But since Unions don't work for the company to make a profit, and nothing the government runs makes a profit, I imagine they are getting a good share of tax money.

Which brings me to health care, again. There are a lot of things the government could do to improve the system and reduce costs. However none of that is being addressed in the 1,000 plus page Bill. Because the goal is to drive out private business and have the government run the whole system.

Now, lets go a step farther.

The FDIC is bankrupt. They are the government agency that takes over failing banks, and guarantees your deposit safety. They estimate another 500 banks will fail in the next three months.

Since the original bailout plan started, the idea was the banks would start loaning money to small business to keep them afloat. In fact the opposite has occurred, and small business has been forced to lay off workers to try to stay open.

Many have closed altogether. A lot of big companies have closed. You would think the folks in DC would be talking about jobs a little bit. Instead they are touting how good things look since only 500,000 jobs were lost last month. That is down from 700,000, so things are looking up.

That is how government views the world. If it is better than the worst case scenario, then it is a success.

This brings me back to cash for clunkers. I said this was stupid since day one. Why, because the government isn't profit driven. A timely manner for them is years, not days, to get things done. The Car dealerships use their own money to buy the cars on their lot. And now, they are having trouble getting the government to reimburse them for this plan.

This means the dealers now are cash short, for operating cost, payroll, and new inventory. That means if you work for one and managed to survive up to this point, you might be facing a layoff now, thanks to the government fix.

The government however, sees this as not only a success, but a sign the recession is over.

The government does not operate by the same rules the private sector must abide by. In fact, once they get involved in an industry, they tend to tilt the regulations to favor themselves and kill competition.

This is exactly what the public option is designed to do. Tax payer supported, designed to undercut the private industry. New taxes imposed to coerce business to use their plan.

So far, nothing since last October has been done to help the economy or save jobs. Everything has been done to reward political allies, and crush competition. Once they thoroughly destroy private business, there is the matter of where will they collect their taxes from?

I firmly believe this madness is meant to take the USA and bring it down to a third world standard of living. The Progressives blame us for all the evils of the world, and since they can't figure out how to raise anyone else's living standard, they are content with wrecking ours.

It is only fair after all.