Where Fun Comes to Die

Due to stiff opposition (despite a bipartisan agreement in favor), the vote on the auto industry bailout has been delayed until December 8th.  As Nancy Pelosi puts it:

It is all about accountability and viability.  We [need to] see a plan where the auto industry is held accountable. Until they show us the plan, we cannot show them the money.

The big three auto manufacturers have turned into that homeless drug addict that we pass by every morning: we want to help them out, but we don’t want to give them money if they’re just going to spend it on fueling their addiction.  In fact when I was watching the Allison episode of A&E’s “Intervention” yesterday, I couldn’t help but draw parallels between drug addicts and the auto industry.

Intervention is a reality TV show profiling addicts.  In this episode, Allison is a former pre med Boston U student who huffs 10-12 cans of electronics cleaner a day.  She’s most famous for her drug induced catch phrase, “It’s like I’m walking on sunshine,” parodied here.  Her intervention specialist explained to the family that she will never get better until she hits rock bottom:

There’s nothing we won’t do to help you get together, but there’s nothing we will do to help this continue one more second.  This is done.  Ok, and she can say, “screw you” and go be an addict by herself.  But the truth is, most addicts, if it was just up to them, do not have the resources in and of themselves to even be an addict: somebody’s paying the bills, somebody’s making excuses, somebody’s bailing them out.

We want to help.  Of course we want to help.  But is a $25 billion bailout going to help?  Or will it just get shot up like the rest of the cash the auto industry is burning through at a dangerous rate?

And whatever we do, we can’t trust anything the big three say because we all know addicts will say anything to maintain their current lifestyle.  As Allison said,  “I don’t care if I sacrifice the life of another, I need it now.”