Wait, the U.S. is Fining Toyota?

Okay, Toyota fucked up, we get it. They should have fixed those cars, they should have stopped selling them, and they shouldn't have "hidden" any of the problems, but this is not an issue for the federal government to handle. Of course, it has been made into one.

16.4 million dollars is the total damage done by the Federal government. That's only the fine; just think about how much Toyota is going to have to shell out to fix those thousands of cars as well as handle other lawsuits. I doubt that we will lose the auto company, but you have to wonder: when does it become too much.

Oh jeez, and then Congress had to question the company's management, in order to find out what happened and where new regulation is needed because, for some reason, the current paradigm at play here in America subconsciously forces us to regulate everything. Even though these things are none of the governments damn business.

And now this. The company is being fined a huge amount of money, in addition to the mounting number of lawsuits it's going to have to settle and the millions that will be spent fixing the damn cars. It is not officially too much.

Since when did it become necessary for the federal government to step in on behalf of us? All that we are going to get out of this is regulation, which does nothing to fix the original problem and in fact, worsens it in the long run. You know what would have fixed it though? The free market. If the GD federal government would have just let us, the citizens, deal with the company, this problem could have been solved quickly and painlessly. The people who had problems with the product can sue, the company can pay for damages and repairs, it can learn from its mistakes, and then take the steps to ensure that it won't happen again. This is how it works; we don't need the government to step in on our part. When did we lose the ability to handle things for ourselves, and become weak?

This is what the U.S. has devolved to. Soon as something goes even moderately wrong, the damn government has to get involved and regulate it to ensure our "safety". And of course, the people allow it to happen by complaining and electing others who think this regulation is necessary. We've totally forgotten what made us a powerful nation in the first place: the measure of a nation's status is not in the power, strength, or compassion of its government, but in the strength and prosperity of its people.

We are not weak.

We do not need help.

We don't need protection from ourselves.

We, the people, are the best insurers of our "safety", thank you very much.