Friday, November 21, 2008
Auto Bailout
Here's some random thoughts about the automotive industry bailout. Not all are my independent ideas, but here's my thinking:
It's not an automobile industry bailout, it's a Detroit automobile industry bailout. There is a difference.
The business plan of Chrysler, GM, and Ford is broke and throwing more money after bad isn't going to fix it.
I read somewhere that GM is something like $60 billion in debt now - what good is a &25B loan going to do?
Even if they don't have that debt, GM and Ford are burning through a few billion a month. $25B will last them until roughly April when they'll be broke again.
I know the UAW workers will be hurt - but no matter what happens, bailout or no bailout, the UAW is going to be hurt. Hundreds of thousands of workers are losing their jobs every month in an assortment of industries (DHL just laid off 10K) and nobody helped them out.
GM needs to consolidate and trim their brands. Do we really need Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Daewoo, GMC, Holden, HUMMER, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Vauxhall? I'm guessing way over half of those vehicles are basically the same anyway.
The USofA needs to push mass-transit and smaller, more energy-efficient vehicles and should look at tax breaks and other monetary incentives to the public for using them.
So you know what? I have no idea what to do with the so-called Big 3 that isn't going to hurt a lot of people very badly.
And just as an aside, retirement is no longer something to really look forward to. The cost of everything is skyrocketing, any financial savings plans are dying and pensions are being modified into non-existence and jobs are paying less and less. The houses that could have been a pension fund are worth poop and no one has the money to buy it from you even if you could sell it to supplement the savings that went down in flames along with the house equity.
Labels: government, gripes
