What can we make of the takeover of General Motors by your government?

First, it was probably necessary.  Remember GM has been failing for years.  It was ball and chained by wage and benefit contracts.  These made it impossible for GM to compete with non-union foreign automakers.

More important to remember is that GM finally fell on its face while our economic storm raged.  When it threatened to bring the house down.  Government long felt the company would go bankrupt.  But that moment, in the throes of the storm, was not the moment to let this occur.  Fair enough.

So government bailed it out with loans.  It has converted the loans to stock.  Which means that you, fellow taxpayer, own most of the stock of this company..  And you will watch more of your tax dollars soon go into it.

The plan calls for General Motors to get back on its feet, of course.  At some point the government will sell its stock to private investors.  The plan is for the politicians and bureaucrats to keep their hands off the company.  Right.

Here is a more likely scenario.  The UAW, which was given an oversize piece of the pie, will pressure politicians to change the company to favor the union.  The politicians will do the union’s bidding. They already have, in the bankruptcy arrangement.  They broke the law and a hundred years of precedent to favor the union.

Too, the politicians will pressure GM to build more green cars.  They already have.

Politicians adore power.  That is what politics is – acquiring and using power. Using the power over GM they now have, they will make political decisions about a commercial venture.  Not healthy for the commercial venture.  On the matter of green cars, for instance, car buyers don’t want ‘em.  Not in numbers that allow car companies to make much profit on them.

I can imagine how the politicians may react to low sales of green vehicles.  They will further mandate high-mpg models.  They may slap more taxes on gasoline, to try to force drivers to buy these models.  They may attempt any number of political moves to create an artificial market for the cars their green supporters want us to drive.