A Nation Of Fools? A Clan Of Clowns
Thursday, November 20th, 2008 by Mark | Posted in Unconventional Thinking | CommentsImagine you are walking down the street and you see a restaurant going out of business.
The proprietor is at the front door, looking inside the space that was once his company. You wind up engaged in a conversation. He tells you he has been forced to close up because, “Well, I’m not very good at running a business.
Everything I touch turns to junk.”
You are about to wish him well and walk on when he makes you an offer:
“If you like, I can open a restaurant for you. Just give me a million dollars and I’ll give it a whirl.”
Surprised, even shocked, you say:
“But you said you’re not very good at running a business. Won’t handing you a million, respectfully, be like pouring a million down the drain?”
To which he replies, “Of course. But I will be able to give five people jobs for the six months or so until the million holds out.”
If you think this anecdote is fiction, you have been living in a bubble. It is precisely the conversation America’s so called car markers are having with America’s so-called government leaders. Including our President-elect.
A clan of frauds thinks we are a nation of fools. And the clique of leaders may validate this disgusting assumption. Or embarrassing fact.
It is plausible that the golf club junkies running Detroit should get financial aid-our economy is too fragile to take the hit of an auto implosion-but only if their resignation is part of the package. They must leave. They must hide their heads in shame. They must never run a lemonade stand.
In all of life, we must invest our money, our time, our hopes, our dreams in the form of doers. Not the hangers-on who take orders, collect a check, go home for the 6 o’ clock news, live for the weekend. They are the civil servants, by mind if not title, and God bless them and I wish them well, but I don’t want them running anything. 
There is such a thing as “American exceptionalism.” And to maintain it, we need driven, street smart capitalists who make the wheel turn. Let the Rick Wagoners of the world work for the post office or some other government
agency that pays people for breathing. But if we are going to give Detroit a vault of money, we must insist that an Icahn or a Trump or some other egotist who gets things done is the guardian of the dough and of our national destiny and once the shop is in order, they can pick successors.
In the meantime, let’s be a nation of geniuses dealing with a cabal of frauds. And in our personal and business lives, let’s recognize that we learn nothing and experience zero growth from those who are in the all too common business
of paying it safe!
Mark Stevens
CEO
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November 24th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Well, as of today, the clan of clowns have gotten what they intended…their “little” cushion…
Steve, I cannot stand by and not say anything regarding what our government is doing in the light of today’s news. Spending more money in the hopes that the credit industry will loosen up. NOT!
The auto industry gets there bail out to the tune of some hundreds of billions of dollars. What da heck?
They market right no to the tune of millions of dollars…so, where do they really need the money? Why do they need it? I have a friend that is no longer in the industry, as it is too dishonest, and very often too many are taken for a ride in the finance part of the car sale.
Then they have all these people take out loans to get their nice NEW cars, let them sink because everyone knows that the economy is taking a dump, take back the cars and sell them again…?? Is there no integrity any longer in any industry?
The credit industry froze up not because of bad loans, but because indifferent companies decided it was a good idea to cheat people out of their equity and leave them with a loan that didn’t meet their needs or expectations.
Now we are expected to “bail out” these ingrates with our hard earned monies by giving them our tax dollars? Aren’t we saying, “Hey it’s ok that you did that, let us help you screw more people
out of their equity and financial stability…”
Am I the only one that thinks what is going on is wrong? Is it a good thing we are doing by giving these same people that tear apart the fabric of the “American Dream” by the seams, money that help them out, but not anyone else? Is it truly measurable that any of these monies are really helping to stave off lay offs?
Where is the plan these automakers were supposed to produce and why didn’t the people get the say in whether it was necessary or not? What about the credit industry? Their C-level management get major bonuses, and the rest of the company keeps laying off people all in the name of saving an economy that was set up to fail since the First Bush administration, fostered through the Clinton Admin, and now enforced by Bush #2 and soon Obama?
Sorry I have a bit of a hard time with all of this…it’s not considered eating crow any longer, it’s now just ludicrous.
What do you think?
May 3rd, 2011 at 3:04 am
Now we know who the senibsle one is here. Great post!