Happy news: US taxpayer only stands to lose $16bn on auto bailout

Well the taxpayer should be happy.  Of the $80 billion that we gave to GM and Chrysler as part of a general bail out package aimed at rescuing capitalism from the abyss, the taxpayer is only expected to lose about $16 billion of it. *

The news was revealed in "The Resurgence of the American Automotive Industry," a report published by the White House in advance of a visit to a Chrysler factor in Toledo later this week .  Obama is feeling very good after the illegal invasion of Pakistan by the US military and the assassination of US capitalism's former partner in crime, Osama Bin Laden and the visit is aimed at winning auto workers votes in 2012 as the WSJ points out: "The new emphasis on the auto industry is part of a White House plan to turn the industry bailout into a political advantage, particularly in Midwestern states that were hit hard by the recession and could provide key support for the president's re-election bid in 2012."

The government report touts the bailout as saving the taxpayer billions of dollars because letting the auto bosses go under would have meant billions of dollars in unemployment costs due to lost jobs as well as lost tax receipts had the industry collapsed.  This is their distorted economics; we pay to keep a for profit industry open which means the wages as well as profits depend on public funds and it's a great deal because the taxes we pay on these wages as well as profits  and I assume from the commodities that are sold, is much needed revenue that will get in to government coffers even though $16 billion of the money the taxpayer forked will not be returned.

I have a better idea.  What actually happened was that this industry, basically a transportation industry, was nationalized by the state (they call it conservatorship) bailing out the auto bosses in the process. Instead of socializing the costs while privatizing profits, it would be much better if we go a few steps further than the state did.  Society's transportation needs, all aspects of it, be taken under workers control and management.  A plan for cheap, environmentally friendly public transportation be developed that gradually weans us off of the highly inefficient and wasteful fossil fuel guzzling automobile and in  to more efficient transportation like the old electric trams for example.

By eliminating the profit aspect of such a socially necessary industry, we can produce a more efficient transportation industry that could employ many workers whose intricate knowledge of the industry from the science of engineering to the assembly of the product would be invaluable.

* Government May Lose $16 Billion on Auto Bailout WSJ 6-1-11