GM gets on line for some of our money

There was a time when automakers wanted protection from competition and they lobbied government hard for it. This time around they seem to want to protect themselves from risk and the bad decisions that have wrought havoc to their companies. The current national and global economic crisis has created a seemingly legitimate reason for a bailout package for the automakers and also for many other corporations. But taxpayers should not be lulled into believing that a bailout for Detroit is sound policy. The federal government is largely responsible for plenty of Detroit’s ills and much of the legislation currently discussed to be tied to a bailout is politically motivated and not really based on making the companies successful. I say let them file for chapter eleven and then they can restructure their operations just like many airlines have done over the years. And the argument I keep hearing from advocates of a bailout that claim that filing chapter eleven would not work for automakers because consumers would not buy cars of a bankrupt company--this is fallacious; Consumers willingly paid and walked onto planes of bankrupt airlines without a hitch. This madness of bailing out every company that asks must stop.