Editorial

Bailouts are bad business and poor public policy.
Which means it’s almost guaranteed to happen.
And since we’re creating incentives for poor decisions, mismanagement and arrogance, it’s guaranteed to happen again and again.
At the very least, though, these bailouts better come with a steep price for Wall Street and now Detroit.
The Big Three automakers don’t want Washington, D.C., telling them how to run their business, but now it’s OK for them to back up to the public treasury and drive away with $25 billion in taxpayer money.
These are the same car makers that lobbied against, delayed and derailed efforts to make cars cleaner, more fuel efficient and safer.
Bailouts may be coming but there isn’t any sympathy for them where jobs already have been lost because the car makers couldn’t see coming what everyone had warned them about for decades: Fuel prices will rise, SUVs will become obsolete and consumers will turn to fuel-efficient models.
And Detroit will end up stalled along the side of the road.
How is it that Detroit didn’t see what was coming even though everyone else did? And how come American taxpayers are the ones getting run over?
We don’t like the idea of a bailout, but political reality tells us it is likely to occur. We understand the auto industry is tantamount to our economy. No, it should not be allowed to fail.
We believe help should occur in the form of a loan package and strict oversight should require that the entire loan be returned to the taxpayers.

The Joplin Globe, Joplin, Mo.