Okay, you’re probably thinking this is another one of those articles complaining about bailing out the automakers.  It is, but probably not like you are thinking…let me explain…

So, we have the U.S. automakers, and they are suffering because they are fat and spoiled and stodgy and generally lacking in common business sense. 

Next, we have President Obama and the Democratic Senate worrying about the automakers going out of business because of…(see reasons above).

And so, all of these people collaborate and decide the best course of action is to send billions of dollars to these companies to “bail them out” of their bad business practices.  And, they do exactly that…they send billions of dollars to the same people who blew their own money on big homes and fancy airplanes and frivolity abundunt.

So, you are probably now starting to ask about my point.  It is this:

Wouldn’t it make a whole lot more sense to take those billions of dollars and use them to offer government-sponsored incentives to U.S. citizens who purchase an automobile built by a U.S. automaker?  Seriously…if President Obama told me that he would send me a check for, say, $10,000 if I bought a Ford  or GM automobile, I’d do it.  In a heartbeat.  Even though I don’t even need a car right now, if I thought I could get a brand new car for $10,000 off, I’d do it!   And I bet a lot of other people would, too.

Wouldn’t this stimulus do the same thing that the President is trying to do, only better?  It would significantly increase auto production, save jobs, stimulate the economy, and even better, keep that money out of the pockets of those spoiled, fat-cat automaker CEO’s!

I ain’t no business or economic genius, but I sure don’t see the downside of this plan, and even if there was one, it probably wouldn’t have anywhere near the downside of the current plan!  So what am I missing?