Fool me once, shame on you..... Fool me twice, shame on me. No more of these useless, thieving bailouts!
Auto company's are proxy socialist work programs of the U.S. Government. they have produced nothing of value in the last 30 years. The only reason they have survived this long is easy money and they represent a key voting block. Nothing will happen if they go bankrupt. They have assets, they will be broken off and acquired. People with highschool degrees and no real skill will go back to being worth $15/hr they are worth. It will also send a signal that free market capitalism still has a pulse. But in the end its too late, this is a fire sale, the U.S. is being raped before our very eyes. I don't judge bank robbers anymore, at least they are honest enough to come in through the front door.
I agree with a number of your points. It's critical a country have mfg. to sustain real wealth, but at what cost? You are comparing now to WWII. Most of the defense mfg. is done by Boeing, Lockheed, etc, not on of the big 3. As I stated earlier it's going to be a combo of things that will right this situation. A major restructure in both mgnt. and UAW is needed. Additionally we want to save them then give them tax breaks as I called for 2 year ago. Tier 1 -Biggest break goes to folks that buy American made with US based hq Tier 2 -Buy American made with foreign hq Tier 3- Buy German made VW or Benz, no break Why does the US have an almost completely open, free trade market and many other coutries protect theirs?
Why subsidize failure ? They say they'll turn things around but have had decades to make changes, & haven't done so. - - This means taking money from the vast majority of us, which we could apply to our own retirements, or kids educations - and giving it to a group who has been paid far above market rates for years (about $ 80 per hour with total benefits). They pay outrageous wages for people cutting the grass and sitting around doing nothing (union rules). They need to be turned upside down. This group won't ever think out of the box enough to transform these companies and become viable on their own, no matter what they promise. - - - The big push for this is nothing but a payoff to the unions for helping to put O in office. I would be surprised if it isn't pushed through despite what most of the citizenry thinks. - -
The Big 3 need to start playing hardball. This is obviously class warfare. They need to cut all advertising today, stop all payments to suppliers and start closing plants immediately. Along with that they need daily press releases and conferences pointing out that it seems to be OK to give money to the lying, thieving suits on Wall Street, but the guy who punches a time clock...fuck 'em. In essence, they need to incite some riots. Get a few grieving widows on the tube, those that have seen their husbands commit suicide. Pull out all the stops. Bottom line, the Big 3 go down, a 5 handle on the DOW is here in a blink, and it won't be any quick fucking recovery. The only way I'd be in agreement with letting the Big 3 go down is AIG and GS need to be kicked to the curb as well. All bailout money distributed to them needs to be recovered and all AIG and GS exec's need to be tried for treason. This is a time of war, and they have certainly done unmeasurable harm to our country.
Perhaps we should just nationalize everything. Perhaps a command and control economy is the answer. I mean, it worked for the USSR, didn't it?
Yes, if we're going to nationalize the blue-bloods on Wall Street, then the guys that punch time clocks get the same deal. If there is no risk for the worthless fucks at AIG then there should be no risk for the guys on some assembly line. We go down, we all go together. Anything less is cause for revolution...violent revolution.
You're not nationalizing the Big 3 by giving them a 25 billion dollar loan facility. This isn't the 'great bank buy in of 2008,' where the Treasury Department still hasn't disclosed where 2 Trillion (so far) of taxpayer money has gone, or what they plan on doing with the 2nd half of the 700 Billion allocated for the 'bailout.' That figure is really over almost a trillion given that the black hole that is AIG has received close to 150 billion, alone, in taxpayer money. Comparing the 25 billion dollar loan the Big 3 are asking for, when they're willing to pledge any asset requested of them, and what Wall Street scum have gotten, is asinine. Keep letting our manufacturing base get decimated and you will see the United States become a frickin' Banana Republic. Ross Perot was nothing less than prescient, no matter what else you want to say about him, in what he predicted 20 years ago.