A government big enough to give you everything you want is a government big enough to take from you everything you have. – Gerald Ford, 1974

With the current talk of the proposed auto bailout, the media is focusing in large part on the union auto workers.  If the auto companies don’t get this proposed bailout, or if they have to file bankruptcy, thousands of retirees will lose their health care and pensions, and many more thousands of workers will lose their health care, benefits and their jobs.  It shouldn’t come as any surprise that they are on the brink of total collapse when, thanks to the strongarming of the unions, every worker cost the big three about twice what it cost similarly skilled workers outside of Detroit.  The unions negotiated hefty contracts which the auto companies had virtually no choice but to accept.  Now, those very contracts that were supposed to guarantee workers are what may cause them all to lose their jobs.  I heard on the radio this morning that Crysler shut down a plant that makes minivans, yet thanks to union contracts they still are paying the regular salaries and benefits of the workers for the next two years.  TWO YEARS TO PAY WORKERS WHO ARE NOT WORKING?  OF COURSE YOU ARE GOING TO FAIL.

I don’t blame the worker.  It is the union, an antiquated and unnecessary holdover from the industrial revolution, that has destroyed American manufacturing… and it is the union that will drive the final nails in each of the big three.  But the lesson to learn here is about more than the perils of collective bargaining and union exclusivity.

Paraphrasing President Ford, any time you empower someone to give you everything, they can take it all away.  We’re seeing that first hand with the autoworkers.  If the big three fail, how many thousands of workers will lose not just their income, but their benefits and health care that they were promised for life?  Some people are suggesting that this makes the case for government sponsored universal health care and greater benefits for all.  Clearly they aren’t paying attention.

Think about it.  Thousands of workers face devastating effects if the automakers can’t afford to continue paying for their health care or pensions.  Tens of millions of Americans would face equally devastating effects if the responsibility of health care was left to the federal government.  Sure, you can think the Federal government couldn’t fail… but that’s the same thing people thought about Ford and GM.  Now look at them.

This needs to be a wake up call to Americans.  Stop believing in a nanny state and give up your welfare mentality.  It is not your employer or your government’s responsibility to take care of you.  If you don’t get that, at some point you will be disappointed.  Social Security, Universal Health Care, Unemployment Benefits, etc.  Stop relying on someone else to do what you need to be doing for yourself.  Its hard.  The liberal establishment has been moving us into a socialistic mentality for some time… and now everyone relies on the government for much more than was ever originally intended.  That reliance gives them and lawmakers power, but it also invariably leads to collapse.  Just like the automakers, there is no where to go but down, unless we change our path.

Today its the autoworkers.  Tomorrow its another union company.  Eventually it will be the American public.  We will all be one big union, and collectively we will all fail.