Dealing with the Devil...

Somewhere in Chicago a small business is going out of business. The company's bank has refused to extend their loan because they do not believe the company has the ability to repay it. I have not verified this information, but various outlets have reported that the company is required by law to give the workers sixty days notice before a layoff. The workers received a three day notice. The workers now refuse to leave the building and are demanding the benefits in which they apparently have a lawful claim. I have no problem with any of this. I hate to hear about people losing their jobs, especially at the holidays, but if the company is negligent in their legal responsibilities, it should be held accountable. If the story stopped here, though, I wouldn't be writing about it.

Where this gets more than a little irritating is that various pundits, apparently along with the workers, are calling for the BANK to be involved in the payment of the workers' benefits - because the bank received part of the federal bailout money! Just today I heard our savior-president-elect state his support for the workers.

When I first heard all of this a few days ago I chalked it up to pundits loving to feel self-righteous and pretty much no one involved understanding the bankruptcy laws. I figured it was very likely that the workers would be first in line for payment as the company is liquidated, with the bank and other creditors coming next, and the owners of the company getting anything left after paying everyone else. I expected this to all go away. But it hasn't, because apparently they ARE expecting the bank to pay for the benefits. I do not know how much crack one has to smoke to destroy enough brain cells to enable a person to believe that the bank is somehow responsible for those payments, but apparently lots of people have been hitting the pipe, including the president-elect.

If you or I borrow money from a bank to buy a used car and we take the car to get it painted and then refuse to pay the bill, can the paint shop call the bank and demand payment? Of course not. Under what possible line of logic is the bank responsible for those benefit payments? And now the governor of Illinois is calling for the people of the state to boycott the bank! This is insane. But it is par for the course when the government is involved. And we are going to see more and more and more of this in the coming years.

(As an aside, that same wonderful, caring Governor was arrested by the FBI today on multiple counts of federal corruption.)

Here's a thought: What if instead of spending trillions of dollars to bailout multi-billion dollar companies that made bad investments and/or stupid decisions, we spent a few billion dollars rounding up and prosecuting corrupt politicians? Which do you think would be best for the country in the long run?