Here is my position on it personally. No bail out. Ma and Pa dont get a bail out. Neither does GM. Right now, US Gov is buying some banks up. Buy GM. We all get ownership. Everyone gets piece of the action. Force GM, now owned by the US, to make EV and Green cars, trucks, and what have you. This would also curb dependence on forgin oil. And as stock holders, we get say in the company. If we dont like how its being run, we say something. The unions are fine, but they want the bail out too. Understandably, they want to keep their jobs. This would give them their jobs, give us green cars, and put the auto industry back on its feet.
Let the flames begin. I dont care. Im not even going to argue.
Posted by george190sl | 11/14/08 12:41 PM EST
This ain't rocket science people!
Who won the election? Who delivered Mich. to Obama. The unions of course.
All the talk of a "failure" of GM is pure BS. If they do declare bankruptcy, they certainly wouldn't close their doors and stop making cars. They would open the next day same as always. The difference would be that the fat union workers would have to pay some of their health care costs like the rest of us. And the retired union workers would have to use Medicare like the rest of us.
Anyone who thinks this is going to happen though is smoking wacky weed. The unions would never let it happen and the new government would never let it happen to its biggest support group. We (the taxpayers) are going to bail them out the same way we bailed out the bankers who made $500,000 loans on $300,000 houses.
Force GM, now owned by the US, to make EV and Green cars, trucks, and what have you.
Not a realistic plan.
Unless one can afford the luxury of it and perceived prestige of having a "hybrid" badge, most people don't purchase hybrids or "green" cars, as their total cost of ownership is higher than buying a regular car unless one does 100,000 miles/year.
Evidence 3: Only 2.4% of people choose/can afford to buy a hybrid
Even though hybrids are available from a Honda Civic econobox format to giant General Motors Escalade (a.k.a. tarted-up Suburban) types, only 275,034 of these things were sold as of 2008 year-to-date October. This is less than a fourth of what Honda manufactures in Ohio! Compare to total US vehicle sales of 11,601,104 for the same period.
Hybrids are a niche product. Any company that commits a high % of production to hybrids is going to go the way of the dodo even faster.
Not a realistic plan.
Unless one can afford the luxury of it and perceived prestige of having a "hybrid" badge, most people don't purchase hybrids or "green" cars, as their total cost of ownership is higher than buying a regular car unless one does 100,000 miles/year.
Evidence 3: Only 2.4% of people choose/can afford to buy a hybrid
Even though hybrids are available from a Honda Civic econobox format to giant General Motors Escalade (a.k.a. tarted-up Suburban) types, only 275,034 of these things were sold as of 2008 year-to-date October. This is less than a fourth of what Honda manufactures in Ohio! Compare to total US vehicle sales of 11,601,104 for the same period.
Hybrids are a niche product. Any company that commits a high % of production to hybrids is going to go the way of the dodo even faster.
Green does not meen Hybrids or FLex Fule.
The Smart is a green car from cradle to grave. Hybrids that get 20mpg and use a lot more steel and NON GREEN bateries are in no way green.
And when you consider only two hybrids even been the smart on MPG they just don't make sense at all.
Insanity is doing the same thing & expecting different results
BOTH management AND labor must come up with a JOINT solution before taxpayers loan the automakers a cent.
Until the auto makers return to making a profit, management (especially including top management) and labor must show they are willing to contribute to temporarily reducing all costs. Until then, loaning money to keep doing exactly what they have been doing is a total waste of money.
The big 3 lobbied congress for years to not enact high MPG standards. Now Honda and Toyota are opening new plants in the US while GM is crying for help. Help for what? to make more bloated vehicles with a work force with entitlement issues? ( ducking for cover now ). Not that congress has no blame for being swayed by them.
A rule of thumb is that a smaller group will lobby more effectively for for changes that befit them than a larger group. The big 3 got what they wanted, and now we will pay the price, whether in decreased economic opportunities, higher taxes, loss of jobs, or a combination of these and other factors.
Tom
p.s. I don't think there should be a bail out or a buy out. Let the bankruptcy process reshape the companies
Last edited by gurps; 11-18-2008 at 07:18 AM.
Reason: calification of position
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