The Issues, No. 60 - Bailout the Automobile Industry?

If the automobile industry is truly important to the economic well being of the country then maybe the government should provide some sort of financial assistance to help it recover. The problem is that it's hard, as it has been hard in accepting that the government needed to bailout the financial industry, to agree that an industry that has know it was having difficulties for some years now and didn't have a clue about how to compete with the foreign auto makers now needs our government to step in and save it. For those that believe in a free market economy, I think the emotional solution is that the industry should be allowed to fail because it did not create the demand for its products that it needed in order to survive.

The problem with not having our own automobile industry, however, could be quite costly, not only to our economy, but to our national defense as well. Aside from the fact that a failed auto industry would mean a tremendous loss of jobs, if we don't produce our own automobiles, we could be held hostage economically by the countries that sell them to us. And very simply, if we don't produce our own military vehicles and the spare parts required to keep them operating, we may not be as prepared as we should be to protect ourselves. Therefore, the government, from a purely practical standpoint, needs to do something to help keep the industry alive.

Maybe we don't need three big companies producing a thousand different models of vehicles and maybe the industry should be pared back to something that is reasonable. But we do need to have an automobile industry in order to ensure support for our economy and for our national defense. We just can't become totally dependent upon other countries for our motor vehicle transportation needs.