by The Big Three automakers want $34 billion so they can keep making bad cars and losing even more money.
Congress is skeptical the Big Three know how to salvage their car companies.
What I find most distressing is how tough Congress is questioning the carmakers while the banks were bailed out for $700 billion without a single whisper or catcall.
When basic fairness is missing in the handout-bailout process, hackles are raised, backs arch and we wonder why favorites are being played.
Unemployment is now at 6.7%. 533,000 Americans lost their jobs last month. In the previous two months job losses were over 200,00 for September and October.
Yesterday, AT&T laid-off 12,000 workers.
If we allow the Big Three to die on the Rust Belt, we will be destroying the economy of the Midwest and over a million employees in auto dealerships across the nation will be jobless.
Do we really want to tempt Reagan’s economic disaster in 1984 when 1.9 million jobs were lost as unemployment hovered around 11%?
Do we want a nationalized car manufacturing service? Should we re-brand the Big Three as “Homeland Autos” and sell the cars at cost after breaking the unions and inhaling the existing pension programs?
Does the United States really want to outsource all car manufacturing to Japan and rising manufacturing titans China and Russia?
What will it take to turn around the American economy?
Dacia. That’s what happens when you nationalize cars. We don’t want to see cars turn into rubbish which could very well happen if cars are nationalized. It turns into, what can we do to turn out the absolutely cheapest manufactured cars and maximize profit? In theory: good. In practice: cars end up in junkyard in a couple of years.
I’m not sure what a good solution could be but I will think about it. Meanwhile, car companies the world over still do good for the American economy as they do hire American workers to build the cars for them in this country; it’s not entirely bad for them to prosper 🙂
Gordon!
You will have to explain Dacia to us!
I am curious to know how you would handle the bailout. Would you deny the Big 3 entirely or would you give them something?
It’s a terrible day in America when the icon of our industrial expansion and mass production is in need of a mercy killing.
The Dacia was the Romanian car. Maintenance was remarkably easy because they were so poorly made. My father and I were in one once when the tailpipe fell off entirely. It was tied to the roof and reattached the next day over laughs and beers with the neighborhood mechanics.
I would think perhaps the best way to do things would be a limited bailout with loads of strings attached – external accountants to come in and say this is working, this is not, these cars must cease existence and these cars which are green need to come into being.
Thanks for the background on the Dacia, Gordon! Doesn’t the Darcia make for easy repairs if everyone has one? Why not build temporary, renewable cars?
I know the car business is in a terrible mess — I just hate to see the whole thing tossed in the dumper. I do think making cars that run on alternate fuels will have to be part of the bargain.
Temporary, renewable? How do you mean?
I think the path to the future of cars is going to be electric. No fuel.
Gordon —
I meant the cars are only meant to last a couple of years instead of decades. Keep recycling and replacing to keep the emerging green technology current and safer.
How about this – a car that has easily replaceable components; reusing, as we know from the “reduce / reuse / recycle” order, is better than recycling. There are PCs now available that are made to be upgraded every year with interchangeable parts and a lot less waste.
I love that, Gordon! It makes total sense. I wonder if it would be super expensive?
Here is a question nobody has asked GM yet in all of these congressional hearings.
“What happened to the EV1????”
I think the GM guy drove an EV1 to the hearings this week, Gordon. I saw the logo on the side of the car!
That is a slap in the face to the country! They took it away from us and they flaunt it in our face?
I’m pretty sure it was the EV1, Gordon. I remember it because the car was so gaudy with all the stickers and advertising while the other two guys just showed up in regular cars.
Hi David,
It seems like a double edged sword, any decision – for it or against, is going to affect the country.
That’s exactly right, Katha. They have to save it. Congress can’t be against making American cars. It would be economic suicide.