Ben Stein: Bail Out Detroit – Now

[DJ13]

Posted on Tuesday, December 9, 2008, 12:00AM


Why not be smart about it and NOT LET AMERICANS GET UNEMPLOYED IN THE FIRST PLACE? (Please pardon the shouting.) There are millions of Americans already hard at work making great American made cars and trucks. Why not keep them on the job? Wouldn't that be smarter than allowing the whole upper Midwest to fall into oblivion and then rescue it over a fifty year period?

Second, I get sick when I hear about how this or that professor says we cannot have bailouts in a free market. Really? How about the bailouts the professors get because gifts to colleges are tax free? How about the bailout they get because if they have to teach six hours a week they feel overwhelmed, while the guy on the line in Dearborn works a grueling forty and doesn't whine about it?

Somehow, we can give bailouts to investment banks where the top dogs make hundreds of millions a year for running the company into the ditch and wrecking the whole credit picture in America. Somehow we can have bailouts for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, whose bosses were trading on the credit of the taxpayers to make themselves rich while pumping up a serious housing bubble.

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And why are we so angry at the car companies' executives? They get miserable pay by Wall Street standards and have much harder jobs. Why are we so angry at the unions? They negotiated their deals in good faith. It's not their fault that roller coaster gasoline prices messed up their world. They are our brothers and sisters. They fight our wars. They maintain our middle class lives. Maybe they get paid a lot, but they have been giving back for years. When will it ever be enough? And what about the retirees? They get the benefits they were promised. If those can be taken away, then whose benefits are safe? And do you think it will be cheaper if the government takes on those costs directly?

Let's stop the Depression before it starts. Let's show some fairness and good faith to our own. Let's bail out the Big Three, help them slim down, shape up, and keep making great cars and trucks. The Big Three are us and if we cannot help ourselves, who can we help?

http://finance.yahoo.com/expert/article/yourlife/127875

[ellenfl]

1. who are you and what have you done with ben stein? eom

[Idealism]

3. I was just thinking that lol

Most things I've read from this guy are the same phrases he chastizes here. But hey those on the side of Labor and the automakers here need all the help we can get, even on DU :(

[TroubleMan]

14. No shit.

That's his second article I agree with in the past few months.

[predfan]

2. Amazingly sensible. Surely written by a stand-in.

[DJ13]

4. No, he's been saying the same pro auto industry things on Fox News

Which makes him less than popular with Neil Cavuto.

[krispos42]

5. Waaaaaaa... !?

[4_TN_TITANS]

6. Good ole' Ben...

perpetually behind the curve with what he's preached versus what is necessary in the real world.

[barb162]

11. I think he's right on in this piece and I have heard him say this before. n/t

[no limit]

7. I guess after supporting the policies that got us here someone is having buyers remorse

[mrreowwr_kittty]

8. He really gets it here. Too bad he's such a nitwit where science is concerned. nt

[Ian David]

9. I was in favor of the bail-out until I saw that Ben Stein was also in favor of it.

Now, I have to re-think my position.

[notesdev]

13. Ben Stein wants a bailout for Ben Stein

word has it that he has gotten rocked by the stock market

[economicsjunkie]

10. Detailed Rebuttals to Ben Stein's complete nonsense

http://www.economicsjunkie.com/bail-out-detroit-now/

and

http://www.economicsjunkie.com/reflate-the-economy-now/

Best,
Nima

[barb162]

12. Stein's got good sense here. n/t