>>However, if you're driving in the states and see a Cadillac or a Corvette - they're pretty snazzy - remember that the Cadillac and Chevroret brands would not exist had Obama not bailed out GM.

True. Also bailed out Goldman Sachs and others who caused the whole mess, without demanding proportional benefit for the taxpayer. Contrast to the taxpayer rescue of Air New Zealand where the government scooped the majority of shares, repaired the mess, then onsold some for a decent profit and kept the rest, enjoying a nice dividend every year. Which is what should happen when government bails out private business for greater good: existing shareholders are punished for their mess while the taxpayer enjoys the benefits from the rescue. Which is why the US banking rescue was such a bungle that allowed culprits quickly to resume busines as usual with few consequences. Lest this is seem as smug, the Bank of New Zealand also was rescued by the taxpayer once upon a time after the earlier sharemarket crash, but then tragically it was sold to Australian interests that, a few years later, were scooping double the purchase price in profits every year. If anybody wants an object lesson in government incompetence, look at the sorry history of sale of taxpayer assets in NZ.

>>d. look back at my post about the ICU nurse who has to drive for Uber to buy a tire for her Camry

The only reason that can happen is because those Victor likes call stupid, are still very parochial. Her skills are valued all over the world yet she lives in relative poverty because it's all she knows. Certainly it was true that for earlier US generations there was no need to even have a passport because everything needed for the pursuit of happiness was right here. Now? Globalist policies are systematically impoverishing the US middle class having reamed the working class, with your nurse a symptom of that. There's no need for the 1% to change as long as she drives uber so the 1% can claim more of her share as she turns up polite and caring when they click their fingers for her. The elephant in the room is that in the end- when it actually matters- her services are more important than any dilettante inheritor who struts around importantly while looking down on her as a mere worker.