Like A Teapot

Those sound like drastic measures indeed and they aren't contributing to solving the recession.
Quite the contrary.

Firefox is my main browser and so far I have no trouble playing media files or viewing other file types.

Bailing out an industry is costly and, more importantly, bad in principle.

It's the files on my brother's website that do not work with Firefox.

This is painful to say because my wife and I both have supplemental annuities with Valic which is an AIG company. We didn't get to choose the provider. It was the only one available through our employers.

Even the financial bailout was a bad idea. What makes us believe that the same people, whose lack of oversight and good judgment caused this issue, suddenly have impeccable insight and now know what should be done to repair the damage they have allowed?

While AIG executives fly around the country in private jets attending congressional hearings and frequenting exclusive spas our retirement accounts have lost more than 30% of their value. That means more years of work before retirement for us and a lower standard of living when we are finally able to retire.

When you and I behave badly there are consequences. When these people behave badly they are rewarded by getting to keep their jobs and benefits and by having all of us with whom they have broken faith pay for their mistakes. Even worse they remain in charge for "the recovery."

The auto industries in the USA and Canada are in trouble not just because of bad management, though there has certainly been enough of that. They are also in trouble because the Unions that were originally devised to balance the scales a bit between the power of management and the power of the salaried and hourly work force have been allowed to run amuck.

It is impossible to build even a well designed auto at a price that generates a profit when the labor unions have managed to convince us that a person with a grade school education who has been taught to screw a rearview mirror onto a car should make more than a teacher or a nurse or many other highly trained and productive persons. Add to that an outrageously generous pension and health benefits and it is not hard to understand why the industry is in trouble.

The needed changes are unlikely to come from the same leadership that created the problems. Sometimes a collapse that forces a completely new paradigm is the right way to go even though it is very painful. I can't imagine these same incompetents (in industry, financial services and banking and in government) suddenly having an epiphany and doing the right things. GRRRRRR.

The same thing happened here in my country and throughout Europe.
Governments bailing out major, private banks.
A lot of criticism because for one it it against the basic principles of capitalism. The second reason for criticism is that they got into trouble because of bad and poor judgement. Any small scale selfemployed would be bankrupt, but some guysand companies see their deluded image of being untouchable confirmed.

Aspell works well with Opera.

I like the idea of the car manufacturerr bailout better than the idea of the financial bailout. The latter put money into the pockets of rich people, the former would, at least, help working class people.

That said, I'm not keen on either. On the other hand, if one of the big three (it will be GM) goes under, a whole mess of problems ensue: upstream parts manufacturers might have to close, and many of them source all three car makers, tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of people will be without incomes to pay on their mortgages, which will increase the pressure on banks, and many of those same people will no longer be inusred, increasing the strain on hospitals that have to serve uninsured citizens.

It's a mess for sure with no solution that doesn't have lots of consequences, some of which are almost certainly going to be unanticipated and devastating. BTW Solid Copper I haven't had any graphics or media problems with Opera either.

I thought the files problems mentioned were with firefox.

@ Matt: helping out the banks is not helping out the rich really. If they go bankrupt a lot of hardworking people lose their hard earned savings.
It's still wrong in my opinion.

I agree, Dax. Except that AIG just gave out $400 million in bailout dollars for bonuses. Rich people who ran the company into the ground at the expense of much less rich people are getting bonuses for mismanagement. That bonus money isn't going to help anyone keep their hard earned savings - but it's my tax money, and I'm pretty pissed about it's misuse.

I posted a whileago about Votron, CEO of Fortis Banking.
He made a terrible mistake with the hostile take over of the dutch ABN bank group.
The price ws way to high an the time didn't allow for such risky move.
As a result he got sacked, but not wthout a big bonus on his way out.
Later the effect was held from the stock market as Fortis was in big trouble. An emergency meeting at top european level suggested the national governments should help these banks, as there were several throughout Europe, out of their penible positions.
Fortis is a private bank. Help from the government means my tax money gets pumped in this bank.
It strikes me as unfair for several reasons.
Private initiative that engage in risky operations for the sake of profit and monopoly and fail shouldn't be able to receive governmental help. In good times and golden days there was no return either, quite the contrary, staff got sacked and customers had to pay extra to pay ther bils through automated means. All for the sake of extra profit.
Second reason is that I as a customer from another bank shouldn't see my tax money flow to such corporations, especially when they have given proof of not being able to maintain a decent and thouroughly weighed policy and course.
Thiird is that companies that did have a decent sense are now being punished instead of rewarded. Competition is now a total fraud.
In the US it is the car industry, here it are some financial institutions. The result is the same. Tax payers once again are summoned to pay the bil.
It is totally against every principal of capitalism as such and lacks common sense all over.
Together with you, I'm pissed.

I don't mind bailing industry out. I do mind rewarding incompetence or even just poor judgment.

Even managers who are performing well shouldn't be permitted bonuses that are 100 or 1000 times as great as the average laborer's salary.

You are right Daxonmacs. It was firefox. My bad. I rarely use that. We all seem to have hijacked Solid Copper's original post. Sorry SC.

The problem with not helping banks is that without help they won't make loans to small businesses and potential homebuyers and car buyers. Without the flow of credit for those big expenses and purchases the economy stays stalled out and manufacturers who do manage to stay in business have no buyers for their products. I heard one of the talking heads on television say yesterday that what is needed is an influx of confidence. Things are only this bad because people are scared and scared people don't make very good choices. I think there is something to that.

My main problem with all of it is that only three of the bigger banks receive this help.
The others that ran a decent and sane policy only get the slap in the face.
I wouldn't have a problem with the government securing the return of customers' savings to a certain amount, but injecting hundreds of millions into such institutions is plain wrong. The message they now receive isn't the right one and apart from that, they are now confirmed in their idea that they can play the money game at high rate and stakes, without suffering consequences.

Jc, you don't mean car-jacked, do you?
Panic and anxiety are always bad advisors.
People that aren't scared at all and don't need to worry about consequence, are often reckless. Not the kind I would trust with my hard earned savings.

I don't think we hijacked the post really, but only focussed on one item.

Nice post Solid Copper. It seemed to have touched some strings.

250 billion for 250000 workers?

Why not just give each worker a million and cut out the middlemen? The management all use Lear jets anyway. What do they need to go buy a car for?

*****

Aspell is a very good add on but Firefox does an in-line highlight as you type and is much more comprehensive.

*****

As far as unions go in Britain, they were usually stage managed, not by Russia but by car companies who had a surplus of stock at regular intervals through each year. They would arrange a strike even though the workers generally would rather work.

I mean, who in their right minds would volunteer to go on the dole rather than earn what was rather good money assembling cars? If you didn't like working there you were free to leave. No one ever left did they?

What happened after the management had to go to arbitration instead of working the system, they would go cap in hand to the government.

And all the while Japanese manufacturers with 100% government backing were stealing customers. Then Margaret Thatcher got in and said no more unless you get rid of the unions, then handed them more cash

Then they all kept going despite producing some of the worst cars outside of the USA. People just stopped buying British cars. Today we have the most innovative auto industry ever, based in small sheds in the back of beyond.

Sometimes when a new browser is used, apps like flashplayer, shockwave and etc have to be reinstalled for that browser. I have FireFox and everything works.