So last night, it would seem, the Senate "KILLED" the bill that would have bailed out the U.S. Auto Industry, and it "DIED" there on the senate floor... I quote various news sources who chose to use such intriguingly sacrificial terms to describe Senate-action which is nothing new in this country and yet suddenly seems to take on an almost holocaustal tone... hell, they might as well have stated "high priests of senate took dagger and stuck the pig-bill as it lay bound on the offering floor, bathed in its warm blood and delighted in playing with its still-pulsating entrails..." I suppose the point here is that, like the first incarnation of the bank/financial institution bailout, this one just wasn't what some people felt like their constituents (however out of touch with them some of the senators might be) wanted (needed?) to hear.
Now, I can't help but suddenly feel a little part of all of this. As much as I would like to do the United Statesian thing and say "not my problem", I think, in turn, it is my problem for two reasons: A) A goodly portion of my mother's family lives in Michigan, a state rife with potential to take the brunt of this national dilemma, and B) my current employment is a financial institution that would potentially be the catalyst by which individuals of varying incomes would purchase would-be vehicles from these auto-makers. I must admit, that makes me a tad nervous...
I suppose what gets me so bothered about this is sheer breadth of it all; the number in question (no doubt with a little rounding here and there) is $14 billion... that's $14,000,000,000... at my current rate of salary, to equal that, there would need to be roughly 700,000 of me working with no vacation for one year; I shudder at the thought of even one more of me, so that would simply be a nightmare. By breadth, I mean these recent introductions to all these gargantuan numbers - numbers around which we can scarcely wrap our brains... $700,000,000,000... $14,000,000,000... $400,000,000,000 (the projected national deficit without the consideration of the Iraq mess)... and my favorite, $10,600,000,000,000, or rather the current National Debt; the breakdown of which is that should every citizen of the U.S. pay an equal share of all the money owed, they would each shell out almost $35,000 (http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/)... I'm so excited, I think I might just wet myself.
Georgey Porgey (puddin' and pie) has introduced us to a whole new level of hell what with spending replete with frivolity and recklessness, and in all honesty, I'm somewhat surprised his voting demographic is starting to, well... fall away like the dead skin of their fake-baked faces; the minority leader of the Senate Mitch McConnell opposed the bill in favor a plan that would restructure company debt and bring the wages and benefit packages of United Auto Workers to levels comparable to non-union members (which to me seems rather silly, for if this were the case, why have a union at all?) The Republican opposition positioned themselves as such because of environmental reforms the bill proposed the auto-makers to implement, stating that such implementations would only add to the cost of new models that the automakers, in the U.S. at least, are already having trouble selling. Heh... interestingly enough, there were (according to http://www.theintelligencer.net/page/content.detail/id/518196.html?nav=511) provisions completely unrelated to the subject matter written into the bill, ie: pay raises for federal judges - because we have the money to spend and all...
Now, it would seem to me that in a compassionate world, we would realize that the blue collar jobs upon with this auto industry is built are highly important to the basal structure of our society and provide sufficient income for families who have little else, and therefore would see little problem in helping them out... nay, let them keep their jobs. But then again, a modern synonym for "compassion" is "socialism" and the upper-crust shrieks in terror at the prospect of salary caps and pay cuts and "no Christmas bonuses"... and we realize that these, too, are capitalist organizations that are bottom-line driven... just so long as the bottom line makes yacht payments, of course.
Yet again, we come to the ever present blame-game and are stuck with a tab that may quite possible carry the weight of the world and a populace afraid to do anything more to try and heal the wound; and why should we? What better to remind us of a past mistake than a darkened scar on the alabaster flesh of this nation? Might just be a godsend... FINALLY...
... and don't we, as a nation, have a responsibility, too? That's the problem with the Bush Generation: ME, ME, ME... I deserve it... I deserve things... and we now come to realize we have done nothing to actually deserve it. I mean, hell, that's what the credit market is - getting what you have currently done nothing to deserve.
Maybe we should keep the automakers in business for the sake of a million blue collar jobs... maybe we should utilize the mortgage market to purchase green cars... maybe we should nationalize industries and let a governing body larger than the CEO and his immediate underlings decide just how a company should run... in order to keep our country from collapsing in on itself. Not to say it hasn't happened before; Argentina went through a similar situation and actually did collapse economically, and Somalia took it a step further - they've been without an actual government for a while now. I simply opine, however, that the unwashed masses would be none too thrilled with any of the above mentioned solutions/outcomes.
Whew... that's a lotta crap, ain't it? Of course it is... and to my minuscule brain, the resulting pile of excrement only seems that much larger. But I can't help but feel part of it... maybe not directly responsible, but definitely part thereof. It's going to take me a while to organize my thoughts on this, but not like you care, of course (har har)... but that is neither here nor there, so what, me worry?
Fin
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