Tag Archives: Corporatism

Socialized risk, privatized profit

29 Apr

All too often these days, big corporations have taken the profit when things go well, and counted on the government to bail them out when things go wrong. Recently we have seen huge bailouts of big banks and U.S. automakers. The automakers got huge loans, and at least GM has paid theirs back. I’m OK with using the resources of the Federal government to help out when there is an appropriate social need to meet, such as saving the jobs of all those auto workers. But I cannot accept bailing out corporations without expecting repayment.

Which brings me back to what prompted me to post on this topic today. The headline reads:

BP asks for defense dept. help in Gulf oil spill

So BP wants DOD to help solve their problem. Continue reading