Why Should The American Taxpayer Bailout The Auto Industry???
By rodney850
@rodney850 (2145)
United States
November 8, 2008 3:42pm CST
Congress today is urging GWB to go along with some sort of bailout for the US auto industry! This is the same industry that has been gouging the American public for decades and that in part(for the most part)because of labor unions pressuring and threatening strike if demands weren't met. Why do we, the American consumer, have to pay out the ying yang for our automobiles and then when we say, ENOUGH, and stop buying them we end up paying to bailout the industry? People, no matter what side you are on, left or right, this can't be allowed to happen, especially with the 750B dollar bailout of the finance industry! Call your congressmen/women and senators and tell them to tell the auto industry to su(k it up like you do when times are hard!
I want to know who is going to bail me out when I am broke the next time? Why am I and millions of Americans expected to live our lives in fiscal solvency when our government wants to throw money at everything and everybody who has not taken care of business properly? If I start a small business and don't take care of it, guess what? I go bankrupt and end of business, period!
Auto makers, you want to get out of the mess you're in? Make cars that are less expensive that run more economical than your Japanese competitors! Stop holding hands with the oil companies and making gas guzzlers and make a GOOD, RELIABLE, ECONOMIC vehicle and you will not have the financial crisis you have today!
Labor unions; you want to keep your people working? Stop pricing yourselves out of the market! Is 20 dollars an hour better than unemployment? Is 15? Times in this country are going to get very tough in the next few years and I don't say that to run down Obama because it would have been rough with McCain also. We will be paying for some real stupid decisions made a decade back by both sides.
Here is the article that touched off this tirade!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081108/ap_on_bi_ge/bush_automakers
4 people like this
10 responses
@Taskr36 (13963)
• United States
8 Nov 08
Darn, I was going to start a thread on this as soon as I got home, but you beat me to it. Oh well, I'll just build off your post with my own rant.
First. Democrats are the ones who constantly complain about big business. Why is it that they want to punish big business over and over yet now they suddenly want big business bailed out?
The Soviet Union bailed out their auto industry. Tell me folks, how well did that go? Are any of you rushing out to buy the latest Lada or Volga? Of course not! They SUCK! The bailout rewarded them for making crap cars and left them with no motivation to build competitive automobiles. I can't remember the last time I saw GM make a car worth buying.
In capitalism, if your product isn't worth buying, you go out of business and get replaced by someone who makes a better product. Let Toyota, Mazda, and Honda build more factories here, bringing in more jobs for Americans and giving us better, more affordable cars to buy. I say this as a man driving a 10 year old Mazda Protege that still has plenty of years left in it.
1 person likes this
@finescribe (199)
• Philippines
9 Nov 08
It is the business acumen of the Japanese that made them survive especially in the times of economic turmoil. The thing here is this, Japanese needs to get things done at the level of efficiency which I think has paid a lot.
I think that there are some useless costs which American Automakers are doing. These costs have been past on to their consumers which make such cost more expensive as compared to their cost efficient Japanese Counterpart.
I am working with Japanese company and believe how they try to make out of something more efficient. From saving electricity to saving papers, bills, and other cost efficient practices, no wonder, you can always believe that these surface killers have been killing American businesses without even realizing that these are the killers.
I, for once, wonder if car industry in Detroit is that efficient. If Ford, GMC, and Chevrolet took some extra steps to revolutionize their production and make it better.
I do not think so. Which lead to their demise!
@Taskr36 (13963)
• United States
9 Nov 08
I agree with you on most points, except that American cars are not more expensive. They are similarly priced. The cheapest car pound for pound right now including mileage is the Chevy Aveo. Now we bought a Toyota Yaris for my wife in December because it was the most reliable car available. It actually cost a thousand or two more than the Aveo. We just wanted a car that wouldn't spend half its life being in the shop due to quality control issues.
@Destiny007 (5805)
• United States
9 Nov 08
This is not the first time we bailed out the carmakers.
I seem to recall a situation with Chrysler a few years back, and there were probably others as well.
I agree, we should not be bailing out anyone, whether it be the financial sector or industry. That is not how a free market system works, and the threat of failure used to be enough to ensure wise business decisions. Now with the taxpayers financing these bailouts and ensuring that businesses do not fail, that safeguard in now gone.
Has anyone noticed that the financial bailout did not have the promised effect?... it simply did not work.
1 person likes this
@gewcew23 (8007)
• United States
9 Nov 08
Not one dollar of taxpayer money should go to private companies whether Wall Street or Detroit. Just because you employee a million or so do not mean you are so important that you just cannot fail. Not one company is to big to fail. If they are to big to fail then they will not fail. If consumer wanted their auto's then they would not be in this position they are in. Maybe government should get out of the auto industry and stop legislating fuel standards. Before fuel standards Detroit was producing automobiles that people wanted to buy, now they are producing autos no one wants to be seen in. Their is a reason I have two Toyota, just saying.
@kdhartford (1151)
• United States
9 Nov 08
We taxpayers need to hold the line on this. We need to tell congress not to bailout the auto industry. Enough is enough.
@newtondak (3946)
• United States
9 Nov 08
I don't think we should bail them out. They have overpriced vehicles to the point that no one can afford them. Their financial departments have financed people that should not be financed. They have paid unskilled workers far more than any other industry.
No one can afford to buy their product and all they do is offer 0% financing - they don't lower their prices - they don't even help their dealers, many of which are going under because they can't sell the vehicles that they have been required to purchase for their inventory.
They need to drop the prices of the cars they currently have built to cost to move them. They, then need to start producing a limited number of reasonably priced cars - cars that serve the purpose but don't have all the "frills".
@celticeagle (168126)
• Boise, Idaho
9 Nov 08
Yep, this is America! If it is a big company then there go millions or even billions, but the small guy hasn't a chance. Who was in the debates that said they were going to help with just such things? Hmm. Interesting to see what happens.
@xParanoiax (6987)
• United States
9 Nov 08
There's no valid reason to bail out the auto industry.
This is how our economy works, when the consumers speak en masse you either wise up or drop out. Demanding a bail out when the won't wise up, is like them asking for an exception of the rules of the economy -- it's them blatantly ignoring what we've all been yelling at them for, for ages.
I keep saying, whenever I get an email or something in the mail about cars, "It's 60 MPG, that's the minimum you should do if you continue to make gas-powered vehicles." That's the minimum for peope to be able to weather the fluctuations in gas prices, to weather the sucky economy.
They keep coming out with these cars that's like 27, maybe 32 MPG...and that's what my Mom's ten year old van gets!
I've already vowed never to buy a car until they produce something that's efficient, that everyone can buy. I know a few others who've sworn the same thing, and people as a rule are now pretty jaded.
And they wanna get off scott free.
Oh no you don't!
I'm gonna link your discussion in my blog, and hope that more people take your suggestion and start emailing, calling, writing to congress.
@sweetpeasmom (1325)
• United States
9 Nov 08
I do not uderstand all of this bailout stuff and why it has all happened at once and I heard on the news that they are going to start bailing out people with a lot of credit card debt! WTF?????? This is getting ridiculous.
@jonesy123 (3948)
• United States
9 Nov 08
The automobile industry dug its own hole by not being consumer oriented and by building shoddy cars who broke down just when the warranty expired. Once they realized that foreign car makers quickly provided our market with high standard but cheap cars the train had left the station.
The automobile industry, however, is huge. It would cost a lot of jobs. It's not just the car makers but also all the suppliers and their suppliers. My town is small (less than 50,000) but we had three car part suppliers and one supplier of the suppliers shut down. Now I don't know what kind of money they want to give the automobile industry, but you have to consider that the alternative will cost us as well. Millions will be out of a job. Those people will receive unemployment, will rely on welfare, food stamps etc. They can't buy stuff, more retailers shut down, more people unemployed. Ultimately, it'll end up costing us more.
Now the bailout for the finance industry, I can understand that, too. But it would have worked better, if they would have handed us our per capita share. I mean, what would you have done? One way or another the money would have ended up in a bank anyway. People would have used it to pay off debt, to make a purchase (and the retailer puts it in the bank), or to invest it. Simply putting it into a savings account would have taken a burden off a credit crunch. Everybody would have been better off.
With the automobile industry that won't work. Who is going to use the money to buy a car, much less an American made? Not me. Can't afford them, can't afford the repairs, can't afford the gas they require..
But if we give those car manufacturers money, we need to put requirements on them. They need to get in shape to be more competitive. And they need to repay the money somehow.
@spalladino (17891)
• United States
9 Nov 08
I have to agree with you, Rodney. Although I didn't like it, I understood the need for the last bailout but the auto industry? I feel for the people who will lose their jobs but the industry saw this coming and should have done something about it a long time ago...and so should have the greedy unions. Who else should the American people be expected to bail out? Macy's? Walmart? Is the Rotorooter Man doing okay?
