Capitalism, Democracy, my foot

Soupeater has to say...





There's a lot I want to get off my chest although there isn't one unitary theme to any of this, more like rambling, but here goes.
Have you noticed that it is easier to vote than to get on a plane these days. Despite all the hype about positive identification which is probably necessary in some neighborhoods and situations, most polling places are small electoral districts where the board of elections and poll watchers and other observers usually know either the voters themselves or can recognize those who belong. They don't require the kind of scrutiny that you get when you want to board a plane where not only do they ask for your license but they examine the license under magnification and special lighting to make sure you are Joe Terrorist and not Jim Terrorist. All this is only to prevent you from transferring your ticket to your brother or friend so that the airlines can make some money off you. Any well funded terrorist should employ, at the minimum, a forger capable of fooling the examiners at Homeland Security.
The requests by large companies such as General Motors and Ford for bailout money from the government is the most shameful instance of greed and hypocrisy that I have ever seen in my life. No one needs to be reminded that the management of these big companies, the great captains of industry, have preached their philosophy of laissez faire only now to crawl to the government with their tails between their legs and their hands out. As I have pointed out in previous posts on other blogs, if they want the government to give them money they need to give something in return. Seats on the board, equity in the company and things like that. They have given unions seats on their boards for no good reason that I can fathom since the unions don't have any capital invested in the enterprise, so why should they not give the government a bigger say in their management if the government is the only one who will invest in their poorly run companies. And, forgotten by everyone, is all the money that is distributed to share owners in the form of dividends which, when all public companies are taken together, amount to an incredibly vast sum. This represented an untapped source of capital and should be used before resorting to charity. There was a time when shareholders, holding assessable shares, were required to contribute money to their company when it was in trouble and the board required a bailout.
I don't believe in public welfare except for those truly incapable through mental or physical disablility to hold down a job. I certainly am opposed to welfare given to overextended enterprises. Let them fail. The auto companies are not going to go out of business even if they go bankrupt. There will always be a demand for autos and refrigerators and housing, even if the demand is temporarily diminished. People go through hard times and so do companies. The entire US capitalist system has yet to accept responsibility for their mismanagement the lack of which makes this corporate begging sickening.
If capitalism, which I stongly believe in, is to survive as the politico economic system of choice we have to face the music.