I guess my only real question about this chapter would be that if Root had until May of 2009 to edit his book, why would he still make the claim that the Big 3 automakers all sought bailouts. I was under the impression that Ford did not. The reason why this is important is because the central claim that Root is making is that unions crippled these automakers and made them go bankrupt. If Ford didn't go bankrupt then there is plenty of room to dispute the notion that unions were the key point of failure. 
The other dubious claim in this chapter is that the bailout money would be better spent on "small businesses struggling to survive (p.130)". It's not at all certain that such bailouts would be fundamentally better and certainly the synonymous claim to "Get government out of the way (p.129)" doesn't follow. While having no fundamental problem with the idea that small businesses contribute a lot to the free market, suggesting that the opportunity cost of bailing out large corporations in favor of those small businesses is not a real market solution. While he's on track with the notion of business failure as healthy by-products of the free market, to simultaneously suggest that one group deserves it rather than the other is schizophrenic at best. Seeing that Dr. Lynch made it to the margins of p.132 with a 'good' also finding the notion of attempting to find the next Apple or Microsoft through government funding as acceptable, I'm beginning to wonder who understands true free markets anymore.
The final message about bailouts is understood, but do we have to get there via a faulty route ?
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