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  • GM: More Bailout-Worthy than Citigroup
    The banks should not have been bailed out ... it was a mistake

    It makes zero sense to argue that, because Bush & Co made a terrible mistake, Pelosi/Obama & Co are somehow justified in repeating the mistake

    Bailing out society's failures at the expense of its successful taxpayers is a clear recipe to ensure our children and grandchildren never see what used to be called the American Dream
    Dec 09 16:15 pm |Rating: +1 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Nationalizing Detroit
    "Professor" Newell's comments clearly illustrate the saying "Those who can do, those who can't teach"

    Talk about pie in the sky nonsense! Professors sit behind their guaranteed jobs (tenure) in a secluded ivory tower and pretend they can understand how the real world works.

    Another popular saying, easily understood by millions of people who barely graduated from high school, is "money doesn't grow on trees". Its time we expect and demand that PhD's to grasp the concept.
    Dec 09 15:59 pm |Rating: +4 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • GM Bailout Would Be Agony for Taxpayers
    Free markets work:

    GM pays taxes on its banking businesses -- GMAC and Dietech. Before that, they made money / paid taxes on GM Hughes (which they bought and nearly destroyed) and on the former Perot Systems (which they did destroy). And they make money by selling (really leasing) their clunky cars to captive car rental subsidiaries (Hertz, Avis, etc) -- but again, that is really a financing business -- they dump the unsold cars at cost, and make money by renting the cars out (multiple short term leases).

    The auto manufacturing business itself hasn't made money in decades
    Nov 17 16:01 pm |Rating: +1 0 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Should We Really Bail Out the Big Three Automakers with $73.20 Per Hour Labor?
    Lin -- I don't value the greedy worthless executives any more than I value the greedy worthless UAW workers... I want them to reap the fruits of their labors (bankruptcy), and let me reap the fruits of mine.

    It is wrong for Bush to ask taxpayers to bail out poorly run banks, and it is equally wrong for Obama/Pelosi to ask taxpayers to bail out poorly run auto companies.

    I am fed up with stupid politicians (both parties) punishing people who act prudently in order to reward inept, but politically connected, failures
    Nov 11 18:16 pm |Rating: +2 -3 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Should We Really Bail Out the Big Three Automakers with $73.20 Per Hour Labor?
    Why do we have to bail out ANYBODY????

    Let the bankers and the auto companies compete on their own -- the same as the rest of us.

    If they can't make it -- it is because their products stink. It is not the fault of the taxpayers. We can get our bank loans and our cars from better run companies
    Nov 11 18:08 pm |Rating: +3 -1 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Should We Really Bail Out the Big Three Automakers with $73.20 Per Hour Labor?
    ramram -- what crime did taxpayers commit that we should have to pay to meet promises we didn't make?

    Let GM and the UAW figure out their own pensions and their own benefits -- the same as the rest of us. If the socialists even bring the subject up again -- dump the pension money into IRAs and make the greedy auto workers fend for themselves -- again, like the rest of us.

    Your empty promises and your business mistakes are not our problem.
    Nov 11 17:55 pm |Rating: +3 -2 |Link to Comment |View article
  • Should We Really Bail Out the Big Three Automakers with $73.20 Per Hour Labor?
    The article is about whether TAXPAYERS should bail out automakers... but almost every comment here boils down to some tirade about management versus labor.

    You can choose to believe management or labor or both are at fault for the demise of GM -- but not one commenter has even suggested it was the fault of taxpayers.

    We all went out and looked at the cars produced -- and the majority of us concluded that Honda and Toyota were a better value. Democrats, Republicans, union folk, managers, small business owners, minimum wage earners -- we all came to the same conclusion: Detroit's offerings are inferior.

    Back in the 1970s, when GM/Chrysler/Ford failed (the first time) -- health care was almost a non issue. Iaccoca / Chrysler designed some cars (actually minivans) that didn't suck and focused on improving quality -- and for a short while Chrysler looked like it might make it. But no one carried through on those improvements, and only a few years later Chrysler was back to behaving like GM.

    European car manufacturers are beating Detroit on US soil also. Europe has union labor -- but unions in Europe do not have an anti-team attitude. They focus on making their companies more competitive in addition to making sure that workers get their share of the growth. The UAW is stuck in the past with moronic "us versus them" thinking.

    In the interest of fairness, I should mention that Detroit management has done nothing to help either. Lee Iacocca showed that better designed models and a renewed focus on quality could attract American buyers. Better management would have helped Detroit if only they had bothered.

    Detroit has been a disaster for much longer than Obama has been an adult (Doubya too). This is not a question of whether management or unions are more to blame -- neither management or the UAW have done anything to help themselves; they have both contributed to Detroit's demise.

    The relevant question is whether taxpayers should try to prop up a dead business model, or would taxpayer money be better spent encouraging jobs in a new industry?

    Propping up politically connected companies -- in banking or auto manufacture-- is a terrible deal for country as a whole. In the short term, the government collects lower tax revenue on net (because it has to spend so much on subsidies). In the long term, new businesses and new industries never form because they cannot compete with politically protected.

    Lets all hope that Obama doesn't replace right-wing stupidity with left-wing stupidity. Its not just Detroit that needs better leadership -- the whole country needs it
    Nov 11 17:20 pm |Rating: +6 -1 |Link to Comment |View article

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