Traditionally, I have intentionally avoided politics here.  With a few exceptions surrounding the Olympics this summer, I have chosen to write almost exclusively on other topics...but things in Washington are getting so absolutely out of control, I am compelled to vent.

In case you haven't been paying attention, Mr. Paulson decided earlier this week that he was wrong about those sectors of the financial world that initially needed our $700 billion, deciding on a new course of action with (at least) the same price tag.  Whatever.  Granted I'm far from an expert on these matters (I only took a year each of college-level Economics classes and Political Science), I'm sure I'm not the only one with absolutely zero confidence that anyone on Capitol Hill has any semblance of an idea of how to really fix the economy, at home or world-wide.

So far, however, I've managed to keep my rantings to myself...until now.

This proposed (and no doubt desperately lobbied for) plan to funnel $25 billion to the troubled "Big 3" automakersis absolutely, positively one giant leap toward the establishment of a worker's paradise here in the United States.  For years a major drain on the profitability of the Big 3 has been the vast sums of money going to support their unions and union workers.  Now I certainly do not want to see big corporations creating unsafe working conditions and unfair pay for anyone...but it's about time we get real and recognize that in today's society, nobody is going to go to work for pay and benefits that they deem unacceptable.  Argue all you want, it just isnt' going to happen.  And it isn't like the UAW and others are managing to get pay and benefits for their people that are just barely survivable.  The medical benefits afforded many of these workers is better than my current company, better than I will have as a civil servant, and just about comparable to what I get on active duty in the military--and even in Detroit, factory workers aren't getting shot at as much as U.S. troops are!

This nonsense was summed up well by the Fearsome Pirate Comrade today when he wrote:

You realize what the bailout for the auto industry is, right? The American taxpayers are now subsidizing the unions--you work and pay taxes so that people with better benefits than you can continue to receive them. The new message to the unions is now, "Drive your employer into the ground? No problem, we'll make the taxpayers make up the difference!"

Amen, Comrade, amen.  I'm certain my Congressman (Ron Paul) isn't going to give the go-ahead for this continued slip toward the People's Democratic Republic of America...but others need to get on the phone and tell their elected representatives (who work for YOU by the way) to stop the nonsense!

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