You know, I've been thinking about the proposed loans for the auto companies and how Congress is dealing with the situation and it made me think about that old saying. You can't blame the fox if the farmer leaves the henhouse door open. That's just life on the farm, the fox's instincts will always draw him to the coop so its the farmer's responsibility to make sure to close the door so the fox can't get in.

Now, I'm reading here at DU and other places that people are mad at GM, Ford and Chrysler for shipping jobs overseas and I agree. We keep losing jobs to India, Mexico and China while these CEOs and upper level management rake in extra bonuses for putting Americans on the unemployment lines. Post after post is filled with angry comments asking why should we buy American when the auto companies aren't willing to invest in Americans, themselves? Great question, really, but is it the right question if we want to get to the bottom of the real issue?

Corporations are driven, instinctually, toward profit. Its the nature of the beast. If a CFO sees a spreadsheet that compares the average wages of a Chinese worker to that of an American worker he smells the scent of extra profit and must follow it because that is the nature of survival. A corporation that does not maximize profits will not be able to build up a nest for the lean months to come, just as a fox who does not take advantage of an open coop door won't see the next spring.

So the question isn't why does GM take advantage of low wage workers in other countries, it's who left the door open that gave them access to those workers to begin with. The answer was in front of each of us as we watched the auto company hearings - Congress. That's right, the farmer who carelessly left the door open for the fox is now trying to sanctimoniously pretend its all the fox's fault. Instead of looking to himself and castigating himself for his own failures, he threw his hands up in the air and cried "what are we ever going to do about these foxes?". Was it the fox's fault the farmer gave him such easy access to the hens? Is it GM's fault that in an extremely competitive market, Congress opened free trade agreements that punished those who paid living wages?

Meanwhile, the hens - also known as the American workers - are left to run around the coop desperately trying to avoid the sharp teeth of the fox. We keep dodging and clucking at the top of our lungs but the farmer is off to the town pub to tell everyone about the fox in his coop. But he still hasn't even bothered to shut the door and his chickens are getting worn out!

So who's going to shut that henhouse door? I'm afraid it's going to be left up to us poor chickens to make sure the farmer knows what happens when he doesn't uphold his responsibilities to the coop. We need to make sure that every farmer *ahem* -member of Congress- knows that if he doesn't protect us from the fox, he's not going to be getting many eggs *umm* -votes- come election time.

After all, you can't blame the fox when it's the farmer who's not doing his job. The fox is always going to want to eat.

That's just the nature of the beast.