Assume that you are a young twenty-something out on your own for the first time and you’ve run into some financial troubles. You spent unwisely, didn’t make very good choices with your job or with your friends, basically you really messed things up.
So Mom and Dad come to the rescue. They tell you that they will offer financial support but that there are some minor conditions attached. They will decide where you live and what kind of furnishings you will have in your new home. They will choose your job for you and will decide who you can spend time with. They will pick what places you can shop and what kind of food you can eat. They’ll pick your cable service, internet provider, etc and will monitor the web sites that you go to.
But they promise they have no interest in running your life.
To most this assertion would seem beyond ridiculous, and yet this is what President Obama has said with regard to the decision to fire the head of GM and to pretty much take control of the day-to-day operations of the company. Given the huge federal bailout, I can certainly see the logic of taking a big role in the reorganization but to claim that ‘we have no interest in running GM’ is equally illogical.