My guess is ultimately the auto industry will be socialized in some manner and that we will get a medical insurance program that is employer-independent but still results in massive profits for the parasitic insurance industry. Regardless, what's significant in this episode is that it illustrates the depth to which discussion of economics is infused with ideology. Throwing money at a moribund industry is absurd. Public funds should go directly to those who will lose their jobs, health care and pensions and as to the auto industry, we should let "market forces" do to it what they will.
An industry should only be tolerated as long as it functions according to capitalist dogma without and state intervention in any form (including not just subsidization, but, e.g., legislation preventing workers from organizing effectively). Any needs that are not met by what remains of the "private sector" should be public in the sense of being controlled directly by the general population not self-appointed "representatives".
What is baffling is the refusal to abandon free market ideology in these discussions. Of course what I would like to happen won't, at least in the short term. But why continue pretend we have a free market economy when what we really have is state-capitalism? Why continue to pretend that a company's success depends on its competitiveness when in reality it is not much more than a very elaborate mechanism devised by those with power for looting from the public?
The first step toward remedying our economic and political ills is clear understanding. And clear understanding is contingent on the abolition of superstitions like these.
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