hell on wheels

it's tough to look at all the furor
over the proposed aid to the automobile industry
without contrasting
it to the general air of resignation
the sense of not if but how much and when
regarding the financial sector bailout
not so long ago

from the perspective of someone who deals in real
physical things
things inevitably built
maintained by
and used by
humans

humans who buy other stuff

i can't help but be a little suspicious
of the alacrity with which these guys in our government
bent over backwards to help their own kind
but are really grilling these weirdos who actually sell
things
instead of complicated financial abstractions

don't get me wrong
i think there are a lot of assholes involved with this too

i couldn't possibly care less if the ceo's rode to washington
on a golden gas guzzling sedan chair that ran on panda shit
but i do agree that in return for borrowing our money they need to promise us something
which is to be responsible
and to not convince us that we want a vehicle forty times the weight of its likely cargo

hell they can't even make small cars right anyway
i used to drive a perfectly good small car and would have been happy to buy another
or its replacement model
unfortunately its replacement model was a truckacized
[look it up]
[actually don't bother]
monster
that felt huge
was put together worse
and had slightly reduced mileage
pretty emblematic of the way things have gone
i don't want bigger
and they couldn't convince me i did
it's not working on anyone else anymore either

so i bought a foreign car
a real foreign car
as today's globe astutely brings up
not one of the ones made in alabama
or one of the other states so coincidentally opposed to the bailout

but while we're trying to save jobs
let's not forget that these workers and the unions that represent them
are also complicit
not that they're in the wrong
just that they cannot shirk their side of the partnership
either
lest they kill their golden-egg-laying goose
they benefit in good times
but need to sacrifice in bad ones too

but none of these caveats make this anything other than a no brainer
a loan
that'll be spent by companies who make stuff
even if it's crap
on other stuff that people make
and on people who buy stuff
stuff that other people make
and frou frou coffee
and chocolate chip pancakes and sausage on a stick

none of those are bad for the economy

so do it
assholes