Bankruptcy

Do You Think That Maybe There'd Be More Jobs and Fewer Bankruptcy Cases if There Were More Factories? You Decide!

By Joseph McDaniel, Esq.

They were all patriotic, and all had taken loyalty oaths to the United States, either in the service, or as part of becoming a teacher.

And in our music classes, we sang Christmas Songs, and our teachers taught that this was the greatest country in the world, and they were right, of course.

They taught us all that the United States had been the Arsenal of Democracy during World War II, and that it was important that we had the ability to build things well and fast because, well, that let us win our war with Germany and Japan and Italy!

And we watched very nice televisions that were produced in the United States, and we drove cars that were produced by the big three automakers in the world, all of which were in the United States.

I recently saw a very short amateur video about the closing of the last automobile plant in California.

I don't care much what the proximate cause of that closing was, whether it was overregulation, overtaxation, excessive and nutty environmental laws, excessive and nutty carbon laws, regulation of leave time for some employees, regulation of access of all entrances and exits for other employees, regulation of who the employers could, could not, and must hire, or wage and hour laws that priced U.S. Citizens out of the international job market for manufacturing. Or a failure to maintain adequate tariff barriers to prevent unfair competition with countries that dump vehicles in the Unites States to steal market share.

But the free market in the United States is a powerful machine for creating wealth, and the government cannot create wealth; it can only take it away from some and give it to others that it likes better.

Here's the video, and I couldn't help but be sad when I saw it, because California was previously The Golden State, before it became the victim of government spending that required higher taxation and of so much regulation that factories just gave up and went elsewhere.

And about the same time I ran into some guy with a cowboy hat singing about the closing of factories in Detroit, and that reminded me of how people feel when they've had their jobs taken away for no fault of their own.

Heck, they even feel the same way in Ireland!

Now, I know I'm not supposed to say things like this, because it's not politically correct, but I kinda wish the government were much smaller, regulated much less, taxed much less, and got out of the way of the entrepreneurs in the United States who could then start businesses and hire employees and manufacture goods, and make this depression go away.

Because whatever the government is doing right now...ain't workin'!

Putting it another way, none of the Axis Powers could bomb our U.S. factories out of existence.

But apparently Washington could succeed where the Axis Powers failed, because politicians have something more powerful than bombs: regulation and taxation!

Oh, yeah; while I'm on this rant I might as well point out that while bankruptcy can scrape off debt, it can't invent money.

And that is a bad thing if social security has been a Ponzi Scheme from its inception, which seems pretty clear.

It suggests to me that my generation is about to get a double-whammy; factories closing, eliminating jobs, and social security bankrupt, so the generation will need to keep working to survive.

Seems like holding and hitting to me, you know?

Mind you, I like being an Arizona bankruptcy lawyer, so if I work until I'm 120 and then keel over from excessive keyboard use emailing my clients, that's great by me.

But I'm in somewhat better shape than some other geezers, who will, not may, need to find jobs when they should be on a beach balancing multiple salt-rimmed Margaritas.

p.s. You may wonder why a bankruptcy lawyer is whining about an economy that is manufacturing no cars, but lots of bankruptcy cases; well, it's because I know that people suffer when their jobs vanish, and when they look for a year and can't find a job, and when their new job is at half the pay they had before, so they need to come talk to me about a Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Arizona.

That's why I'm whining.

Remember, like the Buddha, I think the world would be a better place with less suffering.

NOTHING HERE CONSTITUTES LEGAL ADVICE RE A CHAPTER 7, CHAPTER 13, CHAPTER 11, OR CHAPTER 12. FIND AN ARIZONA BANKRUPTCY LAWYER WHO IS BOARD CERTIFIED IN BANKRUPTCY LAW, AV RATED, AVVO 10 RATED, ON SUPERLAWYERS, OR JUST VERY EXPERIENCED AND A FORMER CHAIR OF SOME BANKRUPTCY SECTION OR COMMITTEE. NOTHING HERE MAY BE USED AS LEGAL ADVICE IN CONNECTION WITH ANY BANKRUPTCY, WHETHER THAT BANKRUPTCY IS IN PHOENIX, GLENDALE, TEMPE, MESA, SCOTTSDALE, OR ANYWHERE ELSE.

Full post as published by Arizona Bankruptcy Attorney Blog on July 24, 2010 (boomark / email).