By Richard Miller
Author, “In Words and Deeds: Battle Speeches in History”

Hard times ought to invite high honesty. After all, the illusions of wealth have gone, the entitlements should go (and eventually will go no matter how much the government insists on keeping alive the “walking dead,” i.e., inefficient industries), and a spade should be called a spade. No doctor ever successfully treated cancer by calling it a cold.

So what really is “Detroit,” that metonym for American-owned (see: Chrysler) and manufactured (see: Brazil and Mexico) automobiles?

AP

Well, folks, it ain’t automobiles. That’s being done by the Japanese both here and in Japan.

Here’s what Detroit really is: A huge administrator of transfer payments. Think of GM and Ford as running large assisted living facilities. Why?

Because the government’s political, and only partly economic, interests rest on Detroit’s ability to make those payments to millions of retirees, the beneficiaries of stupid labor agreements past. So you see, folks, unfunded pension liabilities is just another form of borrowing against the future, and, when the pension-provider becomes weak, no stronger than sub-prime mortgage debtors.

So when the government starts suddenly getting patriotic about “saving”
Detroit, by all means, fall for it–but understand what you’re falling into. You see, for all the Democrats howling against “privatization,” they’re more than happy to do it when Detroit writes the check. But when Detroit can’t write the check for its privatized social security and old-age welfare programs, the last sucker standing is—Surprise!!!—you and me and the rest of the taxpayers.