They had ample warning and ample time to refit their production lines to prodice vehicles people wanted. They had ample time to see the oil crunch coming.
Every other carmaker on the planet seemed to do just fine, except these dinosaurs who kept making SUV's and gas guzzlers despite all the warnings.
Don't give them one red cent. The republicans are so up on pure capitalism, so why don't they let something FAIL for a change. No bailing out airlines, no bailing out banks or carmakers. They're failing from their own incompetence.
LET THEM FAIL.
gwpriester
· 1 year ago
What Detroit needs is a good dose of reality!
When gas reached $2 per gallon and showed no signs of leveling off, did Detroit sit up and take notice and start offering more fuel efficient cars?
No. Because they make more profit on Hummers, big trucks, and large SUVs.
Companies like Toyota who have been offering fuel efficient hybrids, are not so surprisingly doing very well. While Detroit suddenly wants a bit of that good Republican charity.
prochoicelib
· 1 year ago
The only reason they're asking for a bailout is because they own the place. Chrysler got bailed out in the '80s, CAFE standards have been a joke because of $$$ from auto industry (paging Congressman Dingell). Who cares if your business fails, you can recoup your investment from the taxpayers.
Don't worry, sit back and enjoy the convention, BROUGHT TO YOU BY EXXON.
Yep, they own the place.
dad
· 1 year ago
they've had a 35 year warning.
Indigo
· 1 year ago
I'd like to file for a lifestyle grant. A few million would keep me going but why think small? I'll need 5.7 billion to back off and go away. Where do I file?
jimfromthefoothills
· 1 year ago
IT is always the repugs who need a bailout. Community bankers live and breathe on deposit insurance for their very survival, but they are the first to bitch about the government and taxes.
Asterix
· 1 year ago
How about this?
Detroit gets its artificially-low-interest loan for one year and then the interest rate resets to the current ARM rate. Government being the first-line creditor of course.
Hey, it worked for Countrywide, didn't it?
rexkc
· 1 year ago
Whatever happened to letting the market forces do their magic? When the GOP controlled Congress, they resisted improved fuel efficiency mandates because the market would handle it. Now, American auto companies aren't competitive because they haven't kept up on fuel effiency and the taxpayers are supposed to help them out?
To paraphrase Condi, "No one ever could have expected that to happen."
moreleesafer
· 1 year ago
yep. "No one could have predicted (insert natural disaster, bad outcome for any result of Bush policies here)"
EmGD
· 1 year ago
Bullet trains. Mass transit. Free hats. Spend the money on anything other than bailouts for incompetent companies.
I was thrilled to read how supportive of rail Biden is. He uses Amtrak regularly for commuting between his home in Delaware and Washington. His voting record, bill sponsorship and past statements show him to be a huge proponent of rail travel. Very good.
I was also happy to see he has a very impressive record on environmental issues. I didn't know that until I read more about him. He's looking better every day.
jr
· 1 year ago
repubs want to cut the social safety net and create a corporate safety net
Mikki --SE Pennsylvania
· 1 year ago
The American auto industry has had almost four decades to prepare for this point. After all these years of mismanagement, everyone apparently working on the old saw 'whatever is good for the auto industrty is good for america', and finding out its not true, they come wining hats in hands for a government handout. Well NO MORE! The only ones the government should be helping out are THE PEOPLE. Really, a federal handout so the auto industry doesnt have to pay their own way in retooling etc. but you can be damned sure the top execs will be pulling down great salaries, benefits and platinum parachutes even if the place goes bust and the workers are out on the street. Lets get these people at the top in autos, arilines, finance and mortgages, and strip them of their ill-gotten gains and hold them up to the public ridicule they so richly deserve, and then put them in a real prison for thirty years or so. PEOPLE ARE SICK AND TIRED OR BEING SCREWED BY CORPORATIONS!
prochoicelib
· 1 year ago
They bailed out the airlines after 9/11. Look at how well that worked out!
moreleesafer
· 1 year ago
They had plenty of warning. But they were more concerned about the bottom line right now instead of planning for the future. Now helping them financially with some R&D I might have been OK with that...but they are the ones who lobied to keep the fuel economy standards low for their crap vehicles. I haven't owned an American car since I bought a Ford Festiva back in '88.
They know dang well they could have easily made an electric car like the Saturn EV (or whatever it was called) work for most Americans.
Let them sink. My Mom doesn't get a social safety net when she isn't healthy, they shouldn't get crap when they aren't. take care of the old people first.
devis1
· 1 year ago
I have never owned an American made car. When Detroit rolls out Impalas in 2008 how can anyone take them seriously?
WestCoastian
· 1 year ago
The chickens have come home to roost, as they say.
Is this how the lobbyists will try to get the car companies off the hook for something they should (and probably did) see coming?
Not on my dime! Let's get going on mass transit. That kind of money would be a start.
randysmith
· 1 year ago
I could go for requiring high mileage before a bailout. But a better suggestion I saw somewhere [probably another blog] would limit bailouts only to those companies which paid their executives NO MORE THAN the highest paid US Civil Servant [GS-15 -- around $150,000]. Maybe make it retroactive five years -- give back the previous illgotten salary, including all those lovely options.
I'd also go further and require that the bailout be financed BY THE BAILEE in the form of preferred stock. That way, if the bailout worked, the Government [taxpayers] would realize the benefit. And since issuing the preferred stock would dilute the value of the common stock, it'd act as a "punishment" on the stockholders/owners who allowed the current set of executive fools get away with it....
Want to bet my idea wouldn't result in very many companies coming to the government window... Better bankruptcy where the CEO gets his -- first.
naschkatzehussein
· 1 year ago
If they're going to bail out Detroit with tax payers' dollars (and what else would they use?), I think the auto industry ought to be nationalized and the future profits be returned to the taxpayers in the form of infrastructure, education, health care.
OneManComotion
· 1 year ago
This country is done. There is little if anything that we make. We have become a service econimy...servicing the rich that exist is the rest of the real world.
How does $8/hr sound?
Your country is being sold out from under you. Wake up!!!!!!!!
OneManComotion
· 1 year ago
To respond further. We have a major looting of the treasury going on. If America is to give this money we have basically become a stock holder and must demand all top executives to cut their salaries by at least 50% and take a performance contract based on what they can produce. Or else...BYE BYE.
You would do that if you were on the side of the United States of America.
anarchy
· 1 year ago
sorry but Detroit had their chance and they blew it.
"free marketplace" right?
well a free market has a word for what happens when a series of bad decisions are made and it's called "bankruptcy"
the 20th century was Detroit's era, and the 21st century is beyond their grasp due to their own greed at the worst and lack-of-foresight at best.
All Comments
COULD BE A GREAT START for mass transit in this country
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://b...
Every other carmaker on the planet seemed to do just fine, except these dinosaurs who kept making SUV's and gas guzzlers despite all the warnings.
Don't give them one red cent. The republicans are so up on pure capitalism, so why don't they let something FAIL for a change. No bailing out airlines, no bailing out banks or carmakers. They're failing from their own incompetence.
LET THEM FAIL.
When gas reached $2 per gallon and showed no signs of leveling off, did Detroit sit up and take notice and start offering more fuel efficient cars?
No. Because they make more profit on Hummers, big trucks, and large SUVs.
Companies like Toyota who have been offering fuel efficient hybrids, are not so surprisingly doing very well. While Detroit suddenly wants a bit of that good Republican charity.
Don't worry, sit back and enjoy the convention, BROUGHT TO YOU BY EXXON.
Yep, they own the place.
Detroit gets its artificially-low-interest loan for one year and then the interest rate resets to the current ARM rate. Government being the first-line creditor of course.
Hey, it worked for Countrywide, didn't it?
To paraphrase Condi, "No one ever could have expected that to happen."
http://thesebastards.blogspot.com/
I was also happy to see he has a very impressive record on environmental issues. I didn't know that until I read more about him. He's looking better every day.
Lets get these people at the top in autos, arilines, finance and mortgages, and strip them of their ill-gotten gains and hold them up to the public ridicule they so richly deserve, and then put them in a real prison for thirty years or so. PEOPLE ARE SICK AND TIRED OR BEING SCREWED BY CORPORATIONS!
They know dang well they could have easily made an electric car like the Saturn EV (or whatever it was called) work for most Americans.
Let them sink. My Mom doesn't get a social safety net when she isn't healthy,
they shouldn't get crap when they aren't. take care of the old people first.
Is this how the lobbyists will try to get the car companies off the hook for something they should (and probably did) see coming?
Not on my dime! Let's get going on mass transit. That kind of money would be a start.
But a better suggestion I saw somewhere [probably another blog] would limit bailouts only to those companies which paid their executives NO MORE THAN the highest paid US Civil Servant [GS-15 -- around $150,000]. Maybe make it retroactive five years -- give back the previous illgotten salary, including all those lovely options.
I'd also go further and require that the bailout be financed BY THE BAILEE in the form of preferred stock. That way, if the bailout worked, the Government [taxpayers] would realize the benefit. And since issuing the preferred stock would dilute the value of the common stock, it'd act as a "punishment" on the stockholders/owners who allowed the current set of executive fools get away with it....
Want to bet my idea wouldn't result in very many companies coming to the government window... Better bankruptcy where the CEO gets his -- first.
How does $8/hr sound?
Your country is being sold out from under you. Wake up!!!!!!!!
You would do that if you were on the side of the United States of America.
"free marketplace" right?
well a free market has a word for what happens when a
series of bad decisions are made and it's called "bankruptcy"
the 20th century was Detroit's era, and the 21st century is
beyond their grasp due to their own greed at the worst and
lack-of-foresight at best.