Keith Burgess-Jackson, J.D., Ph.D.

To the Editor:

I wonder how many Americans would willingly accept a proposition in which they accept a company’s liabilities with the potential for only loss, not profit. That is precisely the scheme into which the president has embroiled us with the domestic automakers.

The federal government, which has never been known as a skilled business manager, has become the de facto chief executive of General Motors and Chrysler.

We all know that we will never see quarterly dividend checks for our “investment,” nor will we ever be able to sell our interest at a gain. The best we can hope is to break even, something that the American taxpayer is rarely able to accomplish in an entitlement-welfare society in which the responsible taxpayer lifts up the irresponsible, and in which spending and borrowing are being increased faster than has ever occurred before.

The president is making one huge gamble after another with our borrowed money. We are all part of the investor class now, but the capital we are being forced to place in the game is akin to rolling the dice. I believe that the odds are against the poor taxpaying sap, as always.

Oren M. Spiegler
Upper St. Clair, Pa., March 31, 2009