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2.5 to 3M is a lot of people in a given customer base. With them out of work and their ability to patronize your businesses curtailed or eliminated, how will you "pay our employees, pay our bills, and keep our doors open another month, " either?
Particularly in this case, it's not all about "the big guys."
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Amen.
Not sure this gets done, otherwise.
It really is something of a conservative wet dream:
Say yes to more corporate welfare and screw the environment as a bonus--OR--say no and drive a stake in the heart of the UAW.
Do the Republicans think that helping Detroit car companies make more gas-guzzling SUV's is going to HELP these companies?
Our congressional leaders are stupid, stupid people..
As has been pointed out many times, helping workers (allegedly) by throwing money at the corporations would, once again, have the GOP's support and, thus, this measure heading for passage, if it weren't union workers who'd benefit.
I don't doubt for a second that they're willing to see a region--ESPECIALLY one made up largely of blue states this election--economically blown up if the UAW dies in the fallout.
I wonder who will win out.. corporations or the people.. take a guess...
Frackin brilliant. Let Big Oil bail out the Big 3. They have a century's worth of collusion under their belts, why stop now? Make Chevron bail out GM.
How many dark tinted window Tahoes and Expeditions are those senators going to get? And they probably think it's perfectly OK for auto execs to have those private jets...as long as they get to ride on them.
Washington is just a big old sucking hole...
Don't give them any ideas!!!!
They want to take down the unions. Only because they don't like them. Easy targets for them. Or should I call it collateral damage?
<cite>Originally posted as a video comment by cowboyneok
Various outlooks point that the epicenter for Michigan's economic recovery will be Ann Arbor solely based on the fact that it is not dependent on the auto industry. But even Ann Arbor took a massive hit when Pfizer, after performing years of construction and expansion on their facilities there which began when it was still Parke-Davis, closed all its Michigan operations and the state government went into action trying to get the scientists who were suddenly jobless into University jobs to keep them working in Michigan.
How much money do they need to develop fuel efficient vehicles. It is very simple, chop the horsepower. When I was in college, I bought a Honda Civic. It held 4 people quite comfortably, I could fold down the seats and go to Home Depot to get large objects, and I had no trouble getting up to speed on the highway, fully loaded. How much horsepower did it have? 92! It got 27/31 mpg in the manual drive, which I drove. So in twenty years, our auto industry has gone backwards. Even Honda has. That is pathetic.
They have been steadily marketing to the machismo in drivers. More power, ooh ah, argh, argh, argh (home improvement). Be manlier, drive a car with enough horsepower to go from 0-60 in the blink of an eye. Never mind that if you did that anywhere but on a race track you would be considered to be driving recklessly and pulled over by the fuzz.
If the government is shoveling money to develop fuel efficient technologies, they should get the royalties. That is how top universities like my alma mater (stanford) do. They sponsor tons of research, but the patents that are awarded shovel the money right back to the university. Quid pro quo.
So all in all, the jobs are more important. But if they want that money back to invest in better technology, they can give up the rights to the technology, and the PROFITS.
Perhaps the world will fall apart if the "Big 3" go down. But giving them money and letting them continue in their errant ways is ridiculous.
To the Senate Majority - I want you all impeached (except Obama). If you are going to act like big boys then grow a pair. You are demanding some plan with no specifications. Why don't you have AIG submit one? Or better yet - why don't you write me a plan of the exact amount you expect your 401K balances to be on January 27, 2009 at 10 a.m. To the penny. No one can assume anything in this world. Until your banking friends free up the market it is a guessing game. And while you are at it I would like you to submit to the people the justification for giving $25 billion each to healthy banks who had not requested any bailout money. And I would like that by 5 p.m. today. Sounds ridiculous doesn't it? Well so do they.
I think I am even more angry that this appears to be a response to the little publicized report that Canada has stated they may be willing to give the Big 3 a "Bridge to Obama". A no BS bridge loan of 1.5 - 3.5 billion to get them through until Obama gets in office. In response, now the Congress is "throwing a small bone" in a couple weeks maybe.
China, Japan, etc not only have given their automakers HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS of dollars for R & D fuel efficiency, they are also going to give them similar bridge loans without all this grandstanding.
Of course the Big 3 need to CONTINUE restructuring. However, this isn't the time to be yapping about their jets or whatever. However, it is time to research and recognize the steps that have been taken in recent years. If they hadn't then auto states would not be where they are now. All those Wall Street bitches have jets and much, much more than any automotive employee or executive. As it was noted during the hearings yesterday by Mr. Frank - the common AIG workers makes significantly MORE than any UAW member or high level exec. It is unfair to bring the worker into this. It is unfair to rape our country of our future (I have NEVER used that word before as it is vile - but so is this bullshit).
I am MAD. More mad than I have been through any of this crap lately. My family in Michigan who either work for suppliers, other industries, and even the state are about to have the rug pulled out from them by the same people that are supposed to look out for them. One family member has been told not only that he has to take mandatory time off for half of December but to not count on having a job to come back to. How do you plan your life like that? He works for an international supplier.
And finally, to the dishonorable Senator Shelby - why don't you ask those automakers in Alabama to repay those tax incentives and breaks by year end and see how "competitive" their wages become. Oh, and in case you haven't noticed Mr. Shelby your state's cost of living is a bit less than most other areas and that is for good reason. Bless your heart.
How funny these