In a hard-luck Iowa burg called Webster City last summer, a couple of sharpshooters decided to tell local officials they would come to town, set up a business, and fill most of the 850 jobs lost when Electrolux moved to Mexico.
'course, the city would have to do its share -- fork over some $790,000 in "loans."
"Sure!" said the Webster City fathers.
It was only in the coffee shops where crotchety old farts said, "Wait a minute? Those guys are going to buy car bodies in Romania, ship 'em here, glue electric motors on them, and make us rich? Sounds like horse (apples) to me."
Part of the court case ended today. A judge awarded the 46 Dacia Logan (huh?) bodies to one of the warring parties contending ownership. One of the others shrugged it off and said he might buy them at an inevitable bankruptcy sale.
The $790,000 in city loans? Ask the very practical old boys in the coffee shop what chance the taxpayers ever have of seeing their money again.
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Right. You don't give a damn about Webster City, even if it spawned McKinley Kantor. Neither do I.
However, the lesson is scalable up to the congressional and White House levels. Lesson:
"It's true you can't fix stupid, but you don't need to elect it to public office."
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