How The Bailouts Are Faring In Europe

Let’s see, the bailout of the banks has failed. The two bailouts of Detroit have both failed. The massive porkulus/spendulus package that was supposed to inject confidence in the economy has failed. How many more failures do we need to see before we realize that socialism is the worng way to go?

If not here in the U.S., then look at Europe. Rachel Marsden has an excellent column for Town Hall.

Here are some excerpts:

Hungary and the Baltic states want to be bailed out by countries like France and Germany, which are having enough financial troubles of their own. Le Figaro newspaper reports that France’s debt is heading for 80% of its GDP (or $27,625 US per person) by the end of next year. France pumped $450 billion US into its banks last year, and another $7.8 billion to prop up French car manufacturers – because the world would be lost without Renaults and Citroens. Germany bailed out its banks last October to the tune of $675 billion US. And now the crippled are being asked to carry the wounded with a massive transfer of wealth.

It didn’t work in Europe and it certainly won’t work here in the U.S.

More:

So far, the consensus is to deal with such bailouts of entire countries on a case-by-case basis. Hopefully, that means never. Argentina has been digging itself out of bankruptcy for the past few years, and will perhaps one day figure out that socialism doesn’t work. In the meantime, other countries can use the lesson: You can’t keep pouring money into a socialist society when there’s no production occurring to create the wealth you’re spending pre-emptively.

That is what socialists don’t understand. Socialism destroys the means of production which in turn destroys wealth. The big mistake that socialists make is that they think the main social goal of businesses is to create jobs. That is wrong. The main social goal of businesses is to turn a profit and from that profit new jobs will be created. That’s why higher taxes lead to higher unemployment. Taxes reduce the profit of a business.

Finally:

Now, you might be asking yourself, “Why should I care, as an American?” Well, because President Obama is intent on spreading the misery of this crisis, and it’s unclear at this point how far across borders that misery will reach, or whether we’re looking at some kind of a new economic Marshall Plan to help out Europe. He’s already being prodded in that regard by UK PM Gordon Brown who, like Obama, is tossing money at make-work government projects and, unlike Obama, is facing a toss right out of office as a result. It would represent yet another failure of Obama-style socialism. … Perhaps I can put this in terms that some Brits can understand: Never before has the detriment of giving a socialist more money to piss up a wall been so glaringly evident.

Gotta love that parting shot.

You can access the complete columnn on-line here:

Hang On To Your Wallets, Here Comes The EU!
Rachel Marsden
TownHall.com
March 5, 2009