The Senate passed the $280 billion “Chips For America” bill. Well intentioned, but I think there are unfortunate unintended consequences down the road.
In Farm Show Magazine there was an entry about a farmer with a General Motors pickup that sits waiting for parts to honor a warranty claim concerning a DEF (diesel exhaust fluid) problem that crippled its Isuzu V6. In my experience whenever I see an approaching pickup with one light out it identifies it as General Motors.
I have a friend who swore he would never buy another General Motors product because of the bailout in 2008. This particular guy went broke with his excavating business during the 1980s Farm Crisis. But he didn’t declare bankruptcy. He worked and paid every single creditor who had trusted him.
General Motors made a faulty ignition switch that ultimately cost 124 people their lives when their cars unexpectedly went out of control. GM got a slap on the wrist even though they tried to cover up their mistake beginning in 2001.
The drone of underpaid and abused workers we hear from unions just might be true after all. A big chunk of their paychecks goes to enable mismanagement at the corporate level similar to a parent enabling a dope or video-game addict. Whether through inflation or taxation, we pay for shoddy products and poor business decisions with subsidies and mandates. I wonder, are these bailouts planned ahead of time by crony capitalists and their congressional pets, or are they just plain dumb?
In the “bailout-plan” column is the Ukrainian war and the Covid 19 pandemic. Ukraine has zero strategic value for the United States, yet tens of billions of American workers’ hard earned cash now reside in the pockets of so-called defense contractors. Russia’s defense budget is only 13% of the United States’ defense budget. Yet gullible consumers of corporate propaganda actually believe Russia is on a march to rule the world.
With actual fatalities similar to those from a bad flu, pharmaceutical companies are fleecing the working class with a constant stream of vaccines that don’t work and have a largely unreported record of terrible, adverse reactions. Moderna and Pfizer are featured in the Wall Street Journal driving up real estate values with their executives and workers on a buying spree of penthouses and mansions.
The traditional bashing of welfare cheats dissolved to some extent when Republicans knelt before Bill Clinton, praising him for his welfare reform. Interestingly, there was a huge increase in bad backs and mental illness accompanied by Social Security Disability checks about that time. But corporate welfare has these unfortunate individuals beat hands down.
Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley have joined Bernie Sanders (Democratic posterboy for stolen elections) in a losing effort to defeat “Chips For America,” This bill has to be one of the biggest rewards for incompetence ever invented.
This kind of thing is what really adds up to recession, which recent GDP data indicate we are in right now. Wage gains are 4% behind the inflation rate, an indicator of increasing wealth disparity between rich and poor. That disparity is facilitated by corporate welfare as in “Chips For America.”
When people like Grassley, Ernst, and Sanders prove their commitment to America by further letting working families keep what they earn, recession will self-correct.
In 1920 there was a sharper downturn in the economy than the one in 1929. President Warren Harding drastically reduced the size of the federal government. After a year and a half of sorting out waste America had one of the most prosperous decades in its history. Contrast that with Hoover’s and Roosevelt’s numerous programs for helping put Americans to work. But where did they lead? The Great Depression for 16 years.
Any arguments, compliments or additions are welcome through a letter to the editor, or to me at: 4selfgovernment@gmail.com. Past columns and other stuff is at www.alternativebyfritz.com.
