Rob, over at Say Anything, writes about Chrysler’s decision not to take a $750,000,000 government loan:

If there’s a silver lining in the Obama administration’s take over of General Motors it’s that it put the rest of America’s big business on notice. If you throw yourself on the mercy of the federal government, the federal government may just use that mercy as leverage to start running your business for you.

While this is an important lesson for big business, it’s even more important for individuals. Particularly those who think that it would be a dandy idea to let the government pay for their housing or health care needs. It’s a lesson that welfare recipients here in West Virginia have been facing this year as well. The government is a big, powerful entity, and we as citizens are a lot better off if we can just avoid its notice as much as possible. When you invite the government into your life any more than is absolutely necessary, you are providing it the opportunity to take over.

It’s kind of like the interaction between Harry Dresden and the Denarian, Lasciel. Lasciel offered Harry a great deal of power, and she certainly had the ability to make things much easier for him, but every time he used that power, he was giving the demon that much more influence over him, inviting her to simply take over.

There’s a quote that I’ve heard many times (but, unfortunately, I don’t know to whom I should attribute it): “A fool learns from his own mistakes; a wise man learns from the mistakes of others.” Those of us who have watched the government seize more and more control over those companies that accepted bailout money, who’ve watched more and more strings get attached to that cash after the fact^[a], should be wise men (or wise women) and learn from these mistakes.

1. including not allowing firms to simply give the money back in order to avoid the new strings [↩]

Unfortunately, work prevented me from making it to today’s Tea Party at the state capitol. Looks like there was a decent turnout, though.

Sorry for the silence here lately. I was doing okay for a little while, but I’m honestly kind of sick of politics right now, and haven’t had anything else that I felt like writing about.