The ITT List
Friday Dec 12, 2008 11:49 am
Er…Maybe a Mixed Week for Labor?
My last post was a bit too caught up in the happy news from North Carolina; obviously in Detroit, things aren't going so well. Folks should read John B. Judis on the GOP senators who quashed the auto bailout; he's relentless and right.
However, even on that front, there appears to be some decent news, as it looks like Treasury is going to kick in some of that TARP money to tide the auto industry over until the next Congress takes over. In fact, as Chris Hayes noted yesterday, in the short term, this might be the best outcome, as Dems had been giving away the store to the GOP in order to get the bailout passed.
However, even on that front, there appears to be some decent news, as it looks like Treasury is going to kick in some of that TARP money to tide the auto industry over until the next Congress takes over. In fact, as Chris Hayes noted yesterday, in the short term, this might be the best outcome, as Dems had been giving away the store to the GOP in order to get the bailout passed.
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I’m still not sure why the bailout is supposed to be a good idea. Demand for new cars is sufficient to utilize about half of Detroit’s capacity. And in a rational society, demand for cars would be far less (and almost surely will be, with Peak Oil).
What’s more, if we abandon the Sloanist model of producing in large batches to “sell to inventory,” and then resorting to planned obsolescence, consumer debt and other “push distribution” measures to make people buy shit they don’t need, then about half of ALL our plant and equipment is probably redundant.
So about all a “bridge loan” can accomplish is to cushion the process of liquidating plant and equipment. It will still be liquidated, eventually, and the taxpayers will never see any of that money again.
If the govt. is going to be funding any kind of a “bridge,” it should be a bridge to a new decentralized economy of small-scale production for local markets, on the Emilia-Romagna model. If they’re going to spend the money at all, why not try to bridge the Peak Oil transition so that society doesn’t fall to pieces when gas is $12/gallon, instead of wasting money propping up the old way of doing things until it’s too late?
I was reassured when Congress yanked Dingell’s chairmanship, but who needs Dingell when you’ve got the “progressive” blogosphere?
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