In Defense of Detroit

I, as a hard working American, Will not do any more bussiness with any company, that receives a bail out.. Enough of my hard earned dollars have gone to the bank through purchases and services,to allow my tax dollars to be passed out to anyone but the tax payers.. so what does that leave?? foreign sales and services!!

i disagree without ford gm or chrysler where would we get the american made? everything b coming from china and think of all the jobloss for the you people are the ones who are a disgrace to this country!!!!!

Chrysler still sells high end luxury cars after going completely broke, I think GM is being disingenuous is making that argument. This industry needs to renogotiate union contracts, the unions are one of the primary reasons that the auto industry can't compete with Toyota and Honda. Brush off the leaches. The incestuous relationship between the Democrats who control the entire govt now, and union leaders, is the sole factor that is driving this bailout, it's a political payoff for putting a socialist govt in power in this country for the first time in history.

Chapter 11 is no panacea. However neither is simply handing a nearly bankrupt (in terms of poor: design, inefficient business practices, not producing high MPG vehicles, or alternative energy vehicles, and $70 per hour labor costs in terms of pay and benefits) auto maker $50 million dollar tax payer bail out???. to squander, only to watch it continue in the same disastrous pattern and fail just 2 or 5 years from now anyway. I would suggest than congress pass legislation, which allows the big three to enter limited Chapter 11, and access to guaranteed line of credit....IF they can demonstrate a plan to succeed. IF both management and the UAW accept that they are both responsible for the sad state the find themselves in....and a BIG IF.....IF they are both willing to bite the bullet and sacrifice (significantly decrease costs and wages) in return for access to the secured funds, they deserve a chance.
If however as Gettlefinger represented during a recent press meeting that the UAW IS NOT willing to sacrifice to ensure the continued viability of a company's whose very existence is in definite jeopardy, without looking to the taxpayer to bail them out for 30 years of stupidly short sighted business practices, if they aren???t will to sacrifice something in order not to lose everything???..if they aren???t willing to be a real part of the solution, then let em fail (they are the ones that killed the golden goose). This is not the first time the UAW has had to face harsh reality and the changing nature of the world market. In 1991 Caterpillar offered terms for a new labor contract which the UAW rejected outright. 17 months later to terms that were far less than they had originally rejected. Let us see if the UAW and the big three have learned any lessons from the past. It isn???t 1960, GM is no longer the dominant auto manufacturer, and the game has changed dramatically. Can GM and the UAW adapt?....or will GM and the UAW become the latest dinosaurs to go extinct?

After the oil crisis in the 1970s, the American auto industry pleated that it ???needed time to grow strong enough to compete with the imports on the free market??? and the Reagan Administration agreed to limit auto imports. The auto industry did not respond with the promised development of more fuel-efficient cars but merely increased its price an average $2,600 per new car and achieved record profits while selling fewer cars than in their record sales year in 1977! (Hudgins, Edward, 1985, The Heritage foundation, The costly Truth About Auto Import Quotas, http://www.heritage.org/research/energyandenvironment/EM74.cfm). This incident indicates that governments have to be more critical prior to interfering as they cannot only hurt consumers but can also ruin international relations with import restrictions.

Despite of this fact that we got screwed, I believe that our politicians in Washington will bailout the American Auto Industries. Why you asked? Because they already sent their lobbyists carrying bags full of money up capitol hill and deposited into those politicians??? campaign contribution funds.

The Big 3 can easily go into Chaper 11 and reorganize. That seems rather simple. They will be able to secure financing not long after Chapter 11 (believe it or not). Its the fundamental way to go, in the USA economy, when your business is imploding. They are a sick, imploding, non competitive, too many government regulations, union infested, set of companies. They have a laundry list of problems.

Tax payers can arrange a bail out. That is merely putting off the implosion.

Feeling good about helping someone. That seems a base arguement for the bail out. You know, just seems like the right thing to do.

OK, there must be a compromise. The feel good with no facts camp must meet the Capitalism camp. The compromise is a Structured Bankruptcy with full government guarantee. In this way they can completely reorganize (Capitalism) and the feel good people with no facts people, can feel good that the Government is helping.

Next question?

I hardly think you can defend Detroit when these executives have bloated salaries and continually fly around in private corporate jets. If these companies want the american tax payers to lend them money there better be some rules and regulations in place. Until my money and the my fellow american's money is repaid, these unbelieveably high salaries have to be scaled way down, no bonuses, and def. no corporate jets. One of the executives yesterday explained they have to have higher salaries to keep a good team around. Well they've had great salaries for the number of years and that has clearly not helped. Boo Hoo you big rich baby. Your company is going down the drain and you make an inferior product, suck it up and try to turn your business around. Didn't your parents teach you how to be a man? (adult for all you PC people)

Why don't the auto industry be forced to make promisses before getting the money? Promiss to go electric, promiss to not have any salaries over 1 million, promiss to pay small businesses.

Or they should at least explain how the money will be used to help them.

How many bags of money are we going to give away?

Why don't these auto folks design a conversion kit with their cars; to convert to electric and get more than 65 mpg. And that would sell the cars that are already made.

Has anyone looked at the internal accounting? No. Does anyone know how much accounts payable GM has? No. Does anyone know how much accounts payable is for small businesses? No. Which of those businesses have been in the accounts payable for 3 to 5 years? Has anyone talked to affected small businesses to find out if they will go under if they get only half their money? No. Has anyone investigated which small business will need loan guarantees? No. ...

There is work to do. Looking at the accounting should have been the most basic thing to do. Why don't the conditions say pay these specific accounts payable accounts?

Anyway, there will probably be a bailout, with vague conditions. Because the pressure of a bad economy is too great. Therefore, scare tactics are likely to work right now, because no one can think straight, and everyone is afraid to be blamed or to feel blamed. I think everyone is in this together. Everyone takes the blame for entertaining the idea if codling the auto industry like a child who had a family death.

The auto industry does not like change, and they are fighting to stay the same, with the same old technology, even though they will sell less and less cars. I guess we are going to make laws to stop clean auto technology so that the auto industry can avoid change.

These people need to go away.Between the failed management and their ability to see what needs to be done since 1973 is greed only. The union also has been a part of this-unfireable employees and too strict union rules. Can't run a competitive business when half your workforce does very little. And their golden parachutes and outrageous salaries for their failures is the shareholders fault.

Newsweek - Stick with reporting the news instead of trying to persuade the American people to bail out thse clowns. They are PRIVATE CORPORATIONS !!! Businesses FAIL !!! This is LIFE !!!

If you think they deserve a bailout, I will name you at least 20+ deserving PRIVATE companies in my community that deserve bailout money as well.. Fair is fair..

Newsweek - Stick with reporting the news instead of trying to persuade the American people to bail out thse clowns. They are PRIVATE CORPORATIONS !!! Businesses FAIL !!! This is LIFE !!!

If you think they deserve a bailout, I will name you at least 20+ deserving PRIVATE companies in my community that deserve bailout money as well.. Fair is fair..

You GM CEO's sabotaged yourselves when you sabotaged the promising EV-1 electric cars, not just by torpedoing its market lure, but by cloaking, and then selling to Big Oil control of the advanced battery technology that should have debuted with the EV-1. You conspired with Big Oil and Bush to quash the CA clean-air mandate for a quota of electric cars per auto maker. You ripped away the EV-1's from their lessees just so that you could attempt to re-write history, to contend that these excellent vehicles represented a failed attempt at introducing electric cars to the public, and could keep the public at large uninformed of their true significance and desirability. You were the Pied-Piper for all other auto-makers engaged in similar innovations to follow suit. You CRUSHED and GROUND the EV-1's. Now you have the unmitigated gall to ask of the American Public, "What will WE do?" and "Collapse is imminent if we do nothing."? You've ALREADY accomplished "NOTHING", neither for yourselves, for your labor force, for your future or the future of our economy. You sealed your fate when you conspired against consumers economically and environmentally. And then you slap us in the face with the Chevy Volt, a vehicle that represents your continued effort to keep consumers tethered to BIG OIL. The truth of what you did will continue to spread and the Chevy Volt will BUST. Rick Wagoner, you and Bush should be raked over coals and then convicted for FRAUD. BRING BACK THE PURE ELECTRIC CAR!!!

Gm is hemorrhaging, you can pour all the money you want into it and it won???t survive. Sure put money into them and all the workers and all the companies connected to them that make parts for them will keep going, but towards what direction?

These companies tied to GM can keep making parts for cars that people are manufacturing in the GM plants that people are not buying. The problem is at the bottom it???s a buying problem stupid. You can put all kinds of money into the structure of being able to pay this vendor that vendor this employee or that employee but if no one buys your product or not enough of it YOUR DONE dont bother clicking the open sign on let alone pour money into an empty gas tank.

Obama and his camp are just staving off the inevitable. 25 billion is a band aid GM Will wants more.

Look at this snippet from MSN of how much they need for operating costs.

"The nation???s largest automaker said Nov. 7 that it had $16.2 billion in cash at the end of September, raising the possibility that GM will fall below the minimum of $11 billion to $14 billion needed for day-to-day operations by the end of the year."

Nothing could be better than the City of Detroit being destroyed and washed away,
Looks like its raining in Detroit.

The auto industry has turned itself into a self absorbing monster. At $156,000 a year GM employees are being paid way above the average hourly rate in this country. Yet they continuously ask for more. So GM gives them an offset agreement with health insurance and pensions. This will never work in the long run. They (UAW) are asking taxpayers who earn a fraction of their pay to bail them out so they can continue this never ending quest for more money in an industry that has been losing money for years. Well, it's time to wake up to reality. The big three will go under and you will have to find other jobs. Good luck finding another hourly paid job at $75 an hour. Hugh, NJ