Quote:
Originally Posted by Villages Kahuna
Yours is a well thought, well-written argument, Steve. The only difference between the failure of the litany of companies that have failed and been somehow replaced is their failure didn't happen during a short period of time when the national economy was already in an extremely fragile state. That's all that the politicians are talking about, I think. I really don't think the politicians are pandering for votes or contributions. I believe any plans they're considering for government involvement in any of these sick companies or industries have more to do with broader, longer-term damage to the economy that would result from their failure than trying to save any one company or group of employee-voters. I know that's certainly the reason I'm even continuing this discussion.
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Saying that you are right and there was no pre-election deal, we are still having to face that no branch of the US government is staffed to be a "car czar" or anything equivalent. We just don't have the governmental expertise for industrial management, and historically every time Congress or the Executive Branch has tried to meddle in private industry, it has ended up miserably. Heck, they can't even handle the baseball anti-trust exemption without flubbing things.
Nobody is going to buy a new Chevy based on a government bailout and some snowjob that it is now the patriotic thing to do. Nobody is NOT going to buy a new Chevy because Chevrolet Motor Division of GM (or GM itself) is in Chapter 11 reorganization proceedings. Nobody (except a hard-core Ford-Chevy loyalist) is NOT going to buy a new Chevy if there is a GM-Ford merger.
If the auto industry built more product than it has customers, shall we prepare a bailout for Heinz because Heinz has made more ketchup than people are buying?
If the auto executives and UAW want to play financial "chicken" with the rest of America, let them get run over! They have all of the tools to fix their mutual problem, and have refused to take advantage of what tools are there to use. This is not about the economy and the national security - this is all about GREED.