The drumbeat to pump money into the Big Three auto manufacturers is getting louder and louder. Now we hear that it would be cheaper than letting them fail. I say it would be worth it to let them fail. If bailed out, they will just be back for more. They cannot compete while the UAW runs them.

Should U.S. taxpayers really be providing billions of dollars to bailout companies (GM (GM), Ford (F) and Chrysler) that compensate their workers 52.5% more than the market (assuming Toyota wages and benefits are market), 54% more than management and professional workers, 132% more than the average manufacturing wage, and 157% more than the average compensation of all American workers?

Of course, they are not alone. States like California are demanding that taxpayers bail out their profligacy. So are cities like Philadelphia, Atlanta, Phoenix and San Jose. Employees in the public sector were even more greedy.

Politicians and policymakers failed to anticipate an inevitable bursting of history’s greatest housing bubble. They did not foresee an end to the debt-fueled hyper-binge of consumer spending. They skimped on essential maintenance and infrastructure replacement projects and, instead, bought peace (and votes) from public employees with unaffordable pensions, wages and fringe benefits.

The three mayors proposed providing loans to help cities pay pension costs. They also want $50 billion in loans for investment in infrastructure, and additional one-year loans to cities unable to borrow cash because of the tight credit markets.

But with $1.6 billion in unfunded retiree health care obligations, plus $500 million worth of local and regional road work to be done and $750 million in federal help sought to bring BART to the South Bay, Reed noted the city has a full slate of needs….

Reed created a minor furor Friday when he told an Associated Press reporter he would seek 2 percent of the bailout, or $14 billion, for San Jose — an eye-popping figure, given that the city’s entire annual budget is $3.3 billion.

And I’m not even going to talk about the use of bailout funds to pay huge bonuses to employees of Wall Street firms. Well just a little bit, before I get really upset. It is just such outright and bald-faced theft that it should be obvious to even the dumbest four-year-old in the audience that Treasury Secretary Paulson is hopelessly conflicted and is just taking care of his buddies in the biz. I think that he is so locked into the industry paradigm that he doesn’t even recognize it, what I see as outrageous he sees as just the way things should be.

Things got out out of line. We need to admit that, get them back in line and move on, OK? That means stop rewarding greed, profligacy and fraud from the pockets of the thrifty and prudent.