Bailout Afterthoughts

So we bailed out GM, and now we're doing it again. This time I guess we've added a jazz beat or something. I didn't have much opinion on the car companies being bailed out before, and only a slight one on the banks, but looking back, I think I have my position: we should have let them burn.

It's ok, I know you're thinking it. "What about the thousands upon thousands of employees that would be out of work you capitalist fatcat?" Well, think about this for a minute.

If a company is so immensely big that our government - that is supposed to be a sovereign entity - has to step in and save them repeatedly, that firm is too big to be safe for us. Its so big that we have no choice but to save it, or so the idea goes. Too big to fail and all that. If it's too big to fail, it's too big.

Having a monoculture of anything, whether its exports or imports or Thai ladyboys - or firms that provide employment and revenue - is very hazardous. Ask any third world country that has one big primary export to sustain itself, and nothing else. You're much more vulnerable to market fluctuations, crashes, and just plain old rule-making. It can wreak havoc on your economy when something falls through, as was illustrated at precisely this time last year.