In the past month or so, in the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle newspaper's 'Letters to the Editor' section, I have read with amusement the 'tennis match' involving readers writings in regards to 'liberties being lost' thanks to the Obama administration. The letter by a young lady in Canandaigua in today's, Saturday, August 14, paper has finally spurred me to chime in on it because it was a complete joke.
The title of the letter is "Lost Liberties are adding up" and just the title of which makes me laugh out loud. Let us look at this letter paragraph by paragraph and see what adds up.
1) The first paragraph talks about the administration's takeover of the auto industry and the resulting forced closure of 'thousands of profitable dealerships'. First of all this had to do with the bankruptcy aspect of GM and Chrysler. To emerge from bankruptcy they had to 'trim the ship'. Part of trimming the ship was to cut back on the unprofitable dealerships across the nation. It is true that some weakly profitable dealerships also met their maker, or made changes in order to survive, but the dealerships that survived are now stronger because of it. The vast majority of the dealers that closed were unprofitable and yes some jobs were lost but with the increased sales at the surviving dealerships some jobs were created.
2) The second paragraph paragraph states that GM and Chrysler shareholders saw their investments confiscated by the government in favor of the UAW. This is a crock of Hee Haw. GM and Chrysler would no longer exist if it were not for the government's bailout. The government did not confiscate investor holdings. First of all the stocks for both companies were nearly worthless anyways prior to the bankruptcy and when their bankruptcies were filed that finished off the stock. Now tens of thousands of auto industry and auto industry related jobs were saved thanks to the government bailouts. Companies that were dinosaurs and would not have survived much longer are now leaner and meaner and for two quarters in a row now GM has posted a profit. I have not seen Chrysler's numbers. The state of Michigan would have become a welfare state if not for government intervention. Even though Michigan is not in a pleasant state right now can you imagine what it would be like without the auto industry being saved? It would be pathetic.
Notice how I have not addressed any liberties that would affect you or I personally.
3) The third paragraph states that the administration is ignoring their own scientists recommendations by imposing a moratorium on offshore drilling resulting in huge job losses. This statement is another crock of Hee Haw. First of all it is only a six month moratorium on deep sea drilling. In other words the government wants to take a time out to research what happened and to possibly take steps to prevent this from happening again. When the space shuttle disasters happened did NASA keep on flying? No, they did not. They declared a moratorium on flights until they were able to research the problem and effect proper safeguards to prevent the same disaster from happening again. The companies that drill in the North Sea have much tougher guidelines to adhere to in order to be able to deep sea drill that will prevent what happened in the gulf from happening there. They have much better oil leak prevention technologies in place. Damn those socialist governments and their regulations!!! This paragraph also says that this moratorium has also resulted in huge job losses in Louisiana, I would like to see her figures on this as I would bet that the job losses created by the spill will create many more and longer duration job losses than this six month moratorium ever will. The tourism industry and the fishing industry and their dependent companies have lost many jobs. Jobs that will not return after six months.
The letter finishes by stating that "while these examples may may not impact you, but a government powerful enough to destroy livelihoods is powerful enough to do the same to all citizens". OK, first of all the letter does not state a single example of a liberty that has been infringed on. Auto industry livelihoods were saved by the government's auto industry bailout. People are still at work making cars in this country for GM and Chrysler instead of being on unemployment or welfare and this includes all of the other industries that depend on GM and Chrysler for their work. If this did not happen all that really would have been left was Ford and all of the foreign companies.
What would happen if we let the oil industries regulate themselves? I cannot, nor would I want to, imagine what our world would look like. Government regulations keep them in line and they need to be made tougher. Hey, when these companies make five to ten billion dollars in profit per quarter they can afford to make each well safer. The technology is there and they should be forced to use it. A lot of people want pristine areas opened up for drilling. At this time that would be a joke unless future gulf like disasters can be prevented completely. The Obama administration was willing to open up more areas for exploration but this has made them rethink this.
Losing these 'liberties' allowed the government to save American auto industry jobs and will help prevent future environmental disasters. I guess the letter writer would have preferred that hundreds of thousands of auto industry, and their dependant companies, workers be out of work and the Gulf of Mexico to be akin to the floor of an auto repair shop.
Your King has spoken.
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