Should We Bailout The Auto Companies?
- Yes -- Save them 24.51% (249 votes)
- No -- Let'em rot 75.49% (767 votes)
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| Votes: | 1016 |
| Views: | 3992 |
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| Votes: | 1016 |
| Views: | 3992 |
Comments
We need to weaken the strong PAC's of the Steel and Petroleum industries that are keeping us driving cars from three bloated giants. The merit system that we operate under as employees could be used as a Payout/bailout reward system for successful reorganization practices of these Auto co's. We need to bailout these beasts...carefully.
The result of this poll reinforces the low opinion I have of Dvorak and his readers.
Joseph, Your 1988 Toyota Camry would not pass crash test standards today. The scenario you describe applies to all automakers, because they are beholden to crash standards.
If you produce a product that is not exactly what the customers want, you will lose money. Manufacture a car that costs $20K, and people buy it, you'll be fine. Mass Produce Cars That People Don't Want, and we will see the worlds largest single layoff of workforce... ever. The only reason to save the car companies is to give the workers something better than unemployment. it would be cheaper to shut down all manufacturing of cars, and pay the employees two years wages with benefits, selling all business assets, and shutting down. Someone has to see that other than me. The Big 3 are worth more dead. I'll drive a manufactured in north america toyota pickup, Car companies come and go, especially ones that make poor decisions.
Republicans see trashing the auto companies as a means of eliminating the UAW. They're serving their own self interest. They could care less about the country or any economic repurcussions.
We have a 1988 Toyota Camry with 300,000 miles that gets 30 mpg and handles as well as the tiny 2008 GM rental (30 mpg) we had this summer. Why should we bail out the people who thought they could shove this junk down our throats?
It's interesting how numbers just get thrown out there. If the Big 3 could reduce cost the hourly cost to $45/hr the cost of a vehicle would only go down $800. The cost of labor is only 10% of the total cost of building a vehicle. But then again most don't mind spending upwards of $2500 more on equivalent cars from Japanese companies. Go figure?
Buy 15 Billion worth of stock at a set (Todays) Price, get a seat or 2 on each board. Demand compensation review, and maybe if they come back to heath, the stock will be worth something and can be sold to pay back some of the other bailouts.
They need to go into bankruptcy and restructure. This would give them the power to renegotiate contracts with the unions, dealers, etc. They have too many model lines, too many models that don't make money, too many dealerships, etc. They need to slim down and focus. How many GM dealers are there in a 30 square mile radius versus Honda or Toyota? Why staff to build 70% more cars than you are selling? Just right-sizing the companies alone would significantly reduce their costs if the union contracts would allow them to do it. Would it hurt, hell yeah it would hurt. But giving them billions of taxpayer dollars and not making meaningful changes will just increase our debt by $50 for every person in the US. There are approx. only 78 million people in the US that pay taxes so that is more like $192 out of each of their pockets on top of the other taxes and bailouts they are paying. So if this $15billion doesn't work and we also end up with the Car Tzar then we have to support that new government entity forever. Let them go into bankruptcy, make the changes needed and see if they can survive. If not then no amount of public charity will help. If you want to personally help go buy a few of their cars.
Even if we give them money, that doesn't solve the problems that put them into this disaster in the first place. They still have the high labor costs due to bad union contracts, they still spend an average of $73 per hour on their workers, all compensation included, compared to Toyota's $48. So long as they are forced by those contracts to pay not only current workers absurd salaries, but all of their former workers absurd pension packages, they simply cannot compete in the automotive market. They deserve to go under, the free market will see another auto maker coming along, buying their assets and re-employing all of the workers that may lose their jobs. The only way to get rid of the problem isn't to prop up their current losing situation, but to clean the slate and start over.
American automobile manufacturers invented the term planned obsolescence. For that they deserve to burn in hell forever. Planned obsolescence is bad for everything on this planet whether it be animal, mineral or vegetable. For refusing to compete with the Japanese they deserve to go bankrupt. Either way these guys have been ripping off the American public for almost a century it's time to make them stand on their own hind legs. Besides we're just throwing good money after bad' it's all going into executive's pockets and none of it is helping the economy.
I don't want to spend the money to bail them out and I don't think they deserve it. They largely made their bed and should be forced to lay in it. But the bigger problem is the fallout that would occur if they failed. The loss of jobs and tax revenue among other things, I believe, would cost many times more than what a bailout would cost. I have to go with the lesser of two evils and agree to give them money.
We should LEARN from our mistakes. Our lawmakers demanded transparency for the AIG bailout and put no teeth into it. Now ask anyone what we taxpayers received (assets) for this handout/bailout and no one knows. The problem is far deeper than greedy (and stupid) executives and CEOs. When you have a union driving up wages over the decades for a person with a GED getting $79/hr (including benefits) to hold an impact wrench and turn on lug nuts, there is plenty of places to put the blame. I had someone come in when a local company imploded two years ago and he was looking for work. He had been driving forklifts since high school and wouldn't take anything less than the $27/hr that he was getting at his old job; didn't matter that he had NO other skills. Where does this stop?
If you let the Big Three go under the Country will not be far behind!!!!