You asked for it
So, the Obama administration asked GM’s CEO to resign. And he did. Probably means we’re picking up the tab on the severance. Anyway, this is how business will be done in the era of ridiculous subsidies and bail outs. They let the .gov in and now they have their piece.
March 30th, 2009 at 9:37 am
Bankruptcy is only for the little companies
March 30th, 2009 at 10:25 am
We libertarian types are often known for railing on about the entitlement mentality. It’s usually palatable because when we think of folks with that entitlement mentality, we’re visualizing a poor single urban (read: black) mother with rugrats running loose all over creation while she spends the handout checks on the cable bill.
Frankly I don’t see how the Rick Wagoners and AIG execs are any better. They often seem to think they’re entitled to their jobs and the handouts they’re getting as well.
If you did your job as poorly as these folks have done theirs, you probably wouldn’t be entitled to keep it.
March 30th, 2009 at 10:56 am
I didn’t know I had moved to Venezuela.
March 30th, 2009 at 11:32 am
You didn’t. If you did, you wouldn’t be importing so much oil.
I don’t think it’s socialism to say “if you can’t run your business well enough that you can’t live without our money, you can’t keep your job either.”
If it were venture capitalists buying out a company and demanding management changes (as happens everyday…I myself have been laid off when that sort of thing happens) I don’t think you’d be wailing on about the eeeeeevil Hugo Chavez. We’re simply substituting the gubmint.
Frankly I don’t think it makes sense either, just let the fuckers go Chap 11 and get it over with. But it’s not creeping Marxism just because Rick Wagoner is sending resumes.
March 30th, 2009 at 12:27 pm
First you take over the banks, then you start running the big industries (and this from some people who have never met a payroll in their lives), a little mandatory volunteerism for the kids (with uniforms, and if you don’t like the uniforms you get an orange (or striped) jumpsuit), pretty soon it’s all falling into place , maybe we can help Mexico by annexing Puerto Vallarta for a little Senatorial retirement lebensraum…
March 30th, 2009 at 12:49 pm
“Gift Certificates” to sign your products and patents to the Collective will be arriving by courier later this week. Please return them before 15 April, using your own envelope and proper postage.
Your cooperation is expected. Otherwise, we have these documents and photographs you really wouldn’t like to have made public, of course.
Regards,
Rabbit.
March 30th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
I don’t think it’s socialism to say “if you can’t run your business well enough that you can’t live without our money, you can’t keep your job either.”
If you can’t see the problem in that statement, you’re a jackass.
March 30th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
Brother, you are definitely missing the big picture here.
The Socialist transformation of this nation has begun. And it will succeed because the People are divided: some are busy enriching themselves by partnering with the new nomenklatura, some are too busy denying what their own eyes are witnessing, and the remainder are cheering the transformation. The government has begun the process of taking control of the means of production. That it is doing so utilizing the printing press rather than the gun is an irrelevant footnote.
I grew up under a socialist system. Before the election, I tried to warn everyone I knew of what Obama and his ilk represented. I have seen his like before: the quasi-messianic demagogue who brings nothing but poverty, misery, dissension, and chaos. Instead of listening, too many of those I tried to warn waved me away: “it can’t happen here”; “you’re being paranoid”. Too many Americans minimize or deny the experiences of foreigners who have lived the reality of Socialism and Communism. We lived it; we know it. Yet, even now, you native-born Americans deny what is happening before your eyes.
March 30th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
I’d love to hear you explain it to us, sweet cheeks. Far as I can tell you’re missing the point wholesale and making clear the jackassery here is entirely yours.
If they went to a venture capitalist knee capping firm with their hands out the way they’ve done, you can expect said firm to want to exert control over management, as happens day in and day out. Why would you expect the knee cappers in this case to behave any differently simply because they work for da gubmint?
Jackassery indeed: expecting the dot.gov to not want to exert influence when any other entity playing venture speculator would do just the same.
Go back to reading your Ayn Rand novels and be comforted. Rational folks everywhere else aren’t going to be swayed by wingnuts wailing about SOOOOOOOOOOOOSHULLLLLLLLLIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!
March 31st, 2009 at 1:50 am
DirtCrashr and Oscar have the right of it.