[R]esources given by government to these corporations must be taken from somewhere else. Government cannot conjure billions of dollars of resources out of thin air.The idea that the government has the ability to assist the economy is false. The government can act like the brakes, but never the engine. If it gives you something, it took something from someone else. Simply put (in the words of von Mises): "Government cannot make man richer, but it can make him poorer."
The number of different places from which these resources will be taken is large and spans a continent. So it's easy to overlook the fact that each of many productive firms from across the country will, as a result of this bailout, pay more for steel, machine tools, fuel, and other inputs they use in production. These other firms will contract their operations; they'll employ fewer workers; they'll produce less output.
The bailout might well save GM, Ford, and Chrysler. If so, politicians will celebrate it as "successful." But that success – which will be easy to see and capture on video tape – will likely really be an economic failure because of the resulting (if hard to see) contracted economic activity throughout the economy.
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