There is something plain nonsensical about governments being asked to bail out the Big Three automakers in North America.

This is not to say that some pretty drastic action is not required to keep our homegrown car and truck manufacturers afloat — that appears to be beyond question. There is also no doubt that the impact on the North American economies of an abrupt collapse of the Big Three would be drastic, i.e. an even deeper slide into recession.

But, why a bailout by government? Why not a cash injection from the oil industry which has a particular vested interest in the continued consumption of gasoline?

The auto industry was founded on the capitalist system. Why not a solution from the capitalist system?

The eight largest oil companies in North America, including some Canadian companies, had total net profits of almost $90 billion in 2007. The financial results for 2008 will probably be at least 50 per cent higher on the basis of oil prices that surged through the $150 a barrel mark during the year.

This should leave plenty of room on the profit side for these companies to collectively step in to prevent an even deeper slide into recession in North America, which would inevitably drive oil prices even lower than they have been in recent times, which puts oil company shareholders at risk of their share value dropping even further.

They could mitigate that risk by stepping in to buoy the automakers and help keep our economies going and thereby maintaining a healthy demand for their products.

The other nice part would be that as private investors they can take an equity stake in the automakers in return for their cash injection and they could bear the risk of that investment rather than taxpayers all over North America.

There would be something fundamentally wrong for a government to require ordinary taxpayers in one part of the country, many of them laid off loggers and mill workers, to keep other workers on the job elsewhere in the country through subsidy, particularly when those workers are earning $70 plus per hour.

Where was the federal government when Hayes Forestry Services fell victim to the crashing American economy? What about the thousands of other forest industry workers similarly idled?

I think governments should step away from the foundering automakers and force a private sector solution to their problems. If bad management is a problem, fix that. If re-organization and restructure is required, let that be financed by new investors.

Why should automaker shareholders and employees be given a free ride? The business world has a way of dealing with these circumstances.

It’s called bankruptcy protection.

Response from the left

Get the major oil corporations to bail out the Big Three auto makers? Ho, ho, ho. Does that mean cutting profits to help someone else? Ho, ho, ho. The sacred “market” is devoted to profits, not charity. Governments, after cutting unemployment and welfare benefits, eagerly use workers’ money to prop-up selfish, failed corporations.

— Don Maroc. Read Maroc’s From the left Wednesdays in the News Leader Pictorial.