The line continues to form

Now that Americans seem to have accepted the idea that government exists to keep bad things from happening to people as a result of their own folly, we can expect the bailout line to continue to grow. First Wall Street. Now Detroit's auto industry:

After a series of government interventions in the private markets, one seemingly more astonishing than the next, lawmakers found themselves confronted on Wednesday with the question of when and where to draw the line on future aid.

But with billions of dollars in financial backing already authorized for Wall Street, and with Election Day fast approaching, Congressional leaders seemed uninterested in denying help to large employers of blue-collar Americans.

Even though that aid may appear to help those "blue-collar Americans" keep their jobs a little while longer, it's at the cost of eroding the value of the dollars in which they are paid. In essence, they're subsidizing their own employers through a hidden inflation tax. But since everyone's decided Uncle Sam has to "do something" every time a bad idea or bad management bears bitter fruit, the game's not likely to end anytime soon.

Maybe in America 2.0 we can permanently limit the government's role to a defensive military and ceremonies on national holidays. Government pretty much makes worse anything else it touches. Worth remembering as the nationalization of the economy continues.