Let them sink imo. I would say the same thing if it was a Japanese automaker as I'm saying now. If they are unable to adjust their business plan, to meet a changing economy and the rising cost of gas they don't deserve to continue to exist.

Thanks for playing the capitalist market.

 

The government wants me to bailout homeowners who were greedy and too illiterate to read through a mortgage and figure out that they would not be able to afford the payment in years to come.

Now the government wants me to bailout auto manufacturers who didn't learn any kind of lesson from the 70's and who only look ahead when they start to fail.

The thing is, as treekiller brought up, many of the Big 3 now have cars that are not dinosaurs and actually do have good mpg and good service records. But due to pushing and pushing and pushing the dinosaurs no one seems to give a damn about them.

Ever notice how much advertising you see on Japanese cars as compared to Japanese dinosaurs? Yet another marketing lesson the US automakers failed to attend class on.

I’m tired of working to bail everyone out of something I didn’t support.

In the end the economy is broke as hell and everything is set to fail.

Here is something all of us gearheads can identify with:

When our car starts having a problem that we can’t figure out what are we told not to do? To not just go and throw money at it to fix it.

I think the government needs to learn that.

 

It's not really about that. It's about all the jobs that will be lost. It can easily effect a lot more than just the automakers.

I disagree with the fact that they did not learn from the 70's. There is a lot more variety today then there was in the 70's. Cobalt, Neon, Aveo, Focus, Vibe, Ion, G5, Caliber, and a few hybrids. Of course japanese economy cars get more MPG, but we can't say GM, Ford, and Chrysler didn't learn anything.

 

Thanks for all the input guys.

As for this comment, I agree with you alot on almost all of what you said, but with a mind-set like that, think of what will happen. If you let all those who made mistakes, (some more then others) if you just say its not my problem, I didn't do that, then the who country will fall together.

Ford and chevy go out alone, do you know how many employees will be with out jobs. The bail out is to help everyone, but I do not agree with CEO's not spending there money to save there own companie, they shouldnt be taking any BS bonus or paid vaction trips, that BS.

It sucks that we have to pay for the mistakes others made, but alot of these people were tricked into buying these house, the miss lead, the miss educated.

But we have to stop thinking about ourselves and think as a people, as a nation, as a whole.

Just IMO

 

It's about forsight and planning. CEO pay is just something easy to key in on because it's a number. If Wagonner payed GM his salary instead of the other way around, it wouldn't have made a dent in the Billions of dollars they're losing. Per quarter! You mean to tell me that the people planning roadmaps and business development had no fallback plan?? Toyota has been gaining on GM for years.

Chrysler was bailed out once already by the government, decades ago. It worked and brought us cheap K-car and minivans. Uncle Sam actually made 25% profit off the deal in stocks. Go read about it. But look where Chrysler wound up again. Back in the toilet. "Hey, Toyota is selling the snot out of Hybrid Prius's... lets bring back the Hemi!" How many times do you check someone into rehab before you just give up?

 

^as long as ur making a profit off their rehab u keep on doing it....

 

bringing back the hemi and the challenger, and chevy with the camreo was awesome, but a bad counter attack to the toyota and the prius, lol i hope thats not what they were trying to do.

 

Dont know if this has been said yet, sitting in my office and cant read the entire thread, but I believe that if they are going to give a bail out (of any kind) the CEO's should put in some of thier own money to help keep the company from going under. I mean they make enough, and most likely they have enough in the bank that each of them could spare maybe 20mil a piece.

 

+1

 

edmel89:

I some how remember Obama telling us what you commented on, about not thinking of ourselves anymore and instead thinking of a Nation that needs help.

Look, I am not a mother to this country. I am a "responsible" tax payer who is intelligent enough to know by doing my part I am helping others.

The top level execs of these companies have the education and the experience needed to run them and they did ... right into the ground.

Your right its not fair to those who work in the plants or their families. But just like the rest of us who are employees and not owners there isn't much power for them to do anything about it and it sucks.

I hope that these companies can find a way to turn their gas guzzler factories into ones that produce cars the consumer wants. But right now with no jobs for the consumers no one can really buy anything anyway.