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Dec
12
There’s no easy answer, there just isn’t. If you vote for the bailout, it feels, superficially, like you’re sanctioning the bad corporate behavior. If you don’t vote for the bailout, it feels like you’re condemning people who’ve relied on an industry they grew up believing could be relied upon. It’s just a lose-lose.
Except from a mitzvah perspective. We’re not a socialist country, folks – no matter how generous we get with our money and our neighbor’s money. You want to read about what governments of socialist economies do when they have trouble? Read about what Great Britain has done. What we’re doing here, what’s on the table here, isn’t remotely as sweeping, in part because of the difference in the size of the economies and the packages, relative to each other.
I have a few things everyone who is grumbling and slapping foreheads over the situation should read:
First, from the Detroit Free Press, 7 Myths About Detroit Automakers. Here’s a preview:
Myth No. 1: Nobody buys their vehicles
Myth No. 2: They build unreliable junk
Myth No. 3: They build gas-guzzlers
Myth No. 4: They already got a $25-billion bailout
Myth No. 5: GM, Ford and Chrysler are idiots for investing in pickups and SUVs
Myth No. 6: They don’t build hybrids
Myth No. 7: Their union workers are lazy and overpaid
Now, go read the reality or risk sounding uninformed.
Then, read these three posts, including one by Michagander, Julielynn Gibbons:
Why are U.S. Senate Republicans allowing Michigan to go bankrupt?
This Bailout is about saving an entire state from bankruptcy, not to mention the 49 other states that are home to auto plants and suppliers. It’s not about “greedy labor unions,” which have made unprecedented concessions before and are continuing to do so to keep the Big Three afloat.
It’s about people, while our leaders are fighting tooth and nail for it, God help us that it should finally sink through the thick skulls of those who sit on high in DC. This isn’t about Allan Mullaly’s salary, or how stupid Rick Wagoner and the other Auto Executives were by flying down to beg for money in corporate jets.
This is about real people, who are in real danger, and the very real possibility that an entire state could literally go broke, should our federal government leave us hanging out to dry in these cold winter months.
Simply put, Michigan, all of her residents and auto workers everywhere deserve better than the U.S. Senate Republicans.
With No Love from Detroit: A Response to the Failure of the Auto Bailout:
I’m sure very few Republicans read this blog. But for those that do–please remember this: your elected officials have not only voted against Detroit, they have voted against every working woman and man in America. They have played games with workers that they’d never play with corporations. They have let their idealized notion of free enterprise work when convinient and hide when necessary. They are not your friend, they are your foe. And any true conservative would know that. Hell, this liberal knows that.
There is some hope that the White House (yes, George W. Bush of all people) is willing to step in and take money from the bank bailout to ensure that the automakers don’t fail. GEORGE W. BUSH. Step aside folks, I may have a stroke.
So thanks, southern Senators. I really appreciate it. We all really appreciate it. While you’re living the high life over the holidays, remember those for whom this may be their last enjoyable Christmas. The Recession just got a big nudge towards a depression.
We Hate Unions, Screw the U.S. Economy:
I don’t know why people keep electing these morons, but seriously, now is not the time to use labor unions as a bargaining chip in a deal to prevent an economic hit the current economy may not be able to handle. Its f****** irrational and selfish and unconscionable and disgusting behavior. They are in it for themselves, oh, and the foreign car makers who have factories and headquarters in their states. Americans are sick and tired of ideology ruining their future–that’s why they elected a post-partisan president.
And the huge hit on minority populations:
The New York Times and Wall Street Journal both featured a prominent photo on their front pages today. It was an image of Rev. Charles Ellis’s Greater Grace Temple Church in Detroit, Michigan and it may quickly come to symbolize a new face of the auto crisis.
Last Friday’s unemployment numbers showed black unemployment at 11.2 percent, nearly double the white unemployment rate of 6.1 percent. And many blacks in majority-black Detroit are concerned about the impact on the economy if the city’s automakers file bankruptcy.
While much of the attention in recent weeks has focused on the wealthy and ill-prepared ”Big Three” CEOs – Rick Wagoner of GM, Robert Nardelli of Chrysler and Alan Mulally of Ford — less attention has been paid to the impact of an auto industry collapse on Black America.
Is the refusal to support the auto industry the Southern senators’ backlash attempt to put people who speak out and stand up and move forward back in their place? If not intentionally, symbolically? It sure fits the description.
Shame on all those politicians who claim to be for “country first” only to play nothing but politics. What a horrendous example of leadership.
By Jill Miller Zimon at 1:20 pm December 12th, 2008 in Business, Economy, Politics
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4 Responses to “Busting myths so auto industry doesn’t go bust”
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Good reminder! It is important to keep facts in the discussion, since the solution will really be “whatever sucks least”, not a true fix. No matter whether the Big Three go bankrupt or sputter along as usual, there will be negative repercussions.
I am always a bit surprised by just how many people believe those myths — I’m no fan of Ford, but that’s because I own a Ford Escape and was also an employee. I know their problems are legion, but it’s not as simple as “those greedy unions” or “Fix Or Repair Daily” or “bad gas mileage.
SC’s governor is one of many declaring unions to be THE problem (as well as [and I paraphrase] stating that economic stimulus would come from people just going to work, like the many unemployed folks in his state are just lazy). I’m perturbed to have to live in his state. It is a very telling attitude towards the average SC worker, and does not encourage me that manufacturing Down South is going to be in better shape any time soon.
Well having been on the other side of the pond during the bank bailout debate I have been keeping up with the how the Auto industry is faring and effecting
http://thatwoman.wordpress.com/2008/12/15/when-america-sneezes/
Loraine
We have 250 Million cars on the road, what is that one for everyone over 16?
Maybe they should move to JIT and stop pushing production?
To many cars, that’s all…build some commuter rail lines. The only problem with that is funding and the roads we all own we pay for with the fuel excise tax. The trains never make money they always show a loss.
What is funny is that if we where not freaks in such a hurray, then they could build the car as we need them. Less cars less often, scheduled replacement? They sort of are attempting that with leasing. But it’s contrived and not real, many purchases are emotionally driven rather than based on real need. But of course emotions actually are real aren’t they.
Driven less and better maintained and made better autos can last ten years. How about a car that cost ten thousand that is rated to last ten years, it would depreciate at what a thousand a year.
Can you imagine the government could say that is what we want under 3000 lbs and 30MPG, all the other cars eventually get junked they get recycled and all the new cars should be limited as to the material they consist of that being easily recycled.
The future is all about managed cycling based on real need the true demand limited by real supply based on physics.
Hello America….try to find something more than an automobile that makes your spirit take flight.
Myths are something people believe to be real that are not, maybe our existence is a myth? Perhaps its all big pyramid scam? We do realize that supply and demand are not exclusively related to capitalism.