There was our new president on the news a couple of days ago providing a glimpse of the wonderful things he’s going to do to…, ummm, for the American people. He wants to ensure that every kid can go to college, that everyone has health care and — here’s the kicker — “…that everyone who wants to buy a car can get a loan.”
Apparently, no one has explained to him that the world-wide financial meltdown was caused by the Clinton administration’s similar desire to ensure that everyone who wanted to buy a home could get a loan.
In case you weren’t paying attention, there was no sub-prime mortgage loan crisis until FedGov insisted that lenders loan money to people who could not afford to pay it back. Now, Obama wants to make loans to people who “want to buy a new car” instead of to people who can afford to buy a new car. He wants to do the same thing to the auto industry that Clinton did to the real estate market.
Oh, wait, the automobile industry is already in tatters, as a side-effect of the mortgage loan mess. Inasmuch as FedGov is responsible for the sorry state of American industry, I suppose it really should do something to remedy the problem, but is lending money willy-nilly the answer? I think not.
I’ll say it again: tampering with the free market is a good way to cause more harm than good. It helps to remember the Sixth (natural) Law Of Government. President Obama ignores it at your peril. That’s the way it is with government; they screw up and we pay the price.