The reason why the government had to act to save General Motors and Chrysler — and why government interventions in extreme conditions make sense — is all wrapped up in the people who would suffer if government did nothing.  Jonathan Mahler tells the story in the New York Times Magazine of one Detroit family, the Powells, whose roots are deep in America’s postwar industrial revolution and who stand to lose it all if GM goes down.  In fact, they may lose almost everything even if GM is saved, since the company is getting ready to close six more assembly plants in Michigan alone.  But what Mahler does is capture the fact that the Powell family is rich — in deep family ties, in self-help and mutual aid, in a strong religious community, in the ability to make the best of a bad situation and not lose hope.  Mahler writes:

Talking to [Marvin] Powell, I was constantly torn between marveling at his faith, his stubborn belief that everything was going to work out, and the urge to tell him to look around, to read the paper on any given day, to see the train that’s heading straight for him and so many others and try to make a viable plan for his future before it’s too late.  But what would that plan be? . . . Maybe it wasn’t the job you dreamed of when you were 20, but it was what you did and what your father did . . . and it had never failed you before.  What would you do?  How would you prepare for the loss of all that? 

Determined free-marketeers should think about walking a mile (at 5:30 am as the morning shift begins) in Powell’s shoes.

These are people the government would have turned its back on if it had not bailed out GM.  And these people aren’t on their knees — they’re neither defeated nor begging (though many of them are praying a fair amount).  Government aid to GM is a sign to people like the Powells that the work they’ve done for decades to build an American icon — and the U.S. economy — counts for something.  And that kind of support for folks trying to make ends meet is a key strand in our social fabric — which will be stronger now even if GM ultimately fails.

Ned Hodgman

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