Apparently not all of the pirates are in Somalia

There are others in Detroit, too

Ransom

Now the Big 3 US automakers are preaching doom and gloom for the economy if they aren’t bailed out. To hear them (and their congressional apologists) tell it, if we don’t give them the money that they are asking for, they will bring down the country. That’s no better than the pirates of Somalia demanding ransoms for ships and crews they have captured. They have been termed terrorists. Maybe the automakers are, also.

Appeasement

The official policy of the US government is not to give in to terrorists’ demands for ransoms for kidnapped victims, as the money doesn’t guarantee release and just encourages them to do it again. Economists have stated that the amounts the automakers are asking for are just the tip of the iceberg and that they will come back again and again. The problem is that they are failed businesses that failed to learn from their mistakes. In a capitalist system like ours, firms that fail to control costs or respond to the marketplace either disappear or are restructured (often by liquidation or consolidation) into profitable enterprises. Market forces should be allowed to work in this case. They aren’t “too big to fail.” Either consolidation will happen or they will be forced to make the hard decisions that they so far have not been able to make.