I think the thing that upsets me the most about this is the way people are treating the bailout request by the Big 3. I understand we all feel like we got burned by Wall Street but people just don't see how different the car makers are. I just read this article off of reddit:
http://www.unknownnews.org/0811-11.html#MAF110935
"If we bail out the car companies then our economy
has turned from a tragedy into a farce
by Mahdi Abdul Finkelstein
We heard on CNBC this morning from Auto Nation that nothing is selling, not even Toyota or Honda. So how does a "bridge loan" of $25 or $50 billion to the Big Three automakers solve the problem if they are each burning through $7 billion of cash per quarter?
The reality of the bailout proposal is that it is a prayer -- a prayer that the yen does this, the dollar does that, the infrastructure does the other thing, and soon Americans will be buying lots of cars (...with borrowed money, because how many people have $30K cash for a car anyway?)
Just a few months ago people were selling the SUVs dirt cheap because of the high price of gas. Unless I miss my guess there is a huge inventory of low-mileage, high-quality used vehicles out there for sale... cheap.
Add it all up and a bailout now means bailing out GM, Ford and Chrysler again in 2009 with even more money! Don't imagine that their CEOs wouldn't bury their pride and ask for heaping plates of second helpings, either.
If we bail out the car companies then our economy has turned from a tragedy into a farce. And I hope we're ready when the US government credit lines run dry... because WTF happens then?
Mahdi Abdul Finkelstein"
And it pissed me off, so I stole some of Scott's info from earlier in the thread and responded in the comments with this:
"OMG.... MORONS!
I've said this on other threads and I'll say it again here: do people not realize how MUCH of our economy is tied up in these corporations??? By saving them, you are saving jobs, HUNDREDS of THOUSANDS of jobs. If the Big 3 fold; so does everything else they have their hands in. I don't think people realize that includes dealerships, repair shops, parts manufacturers, suppliers, and any other directives for which they are the major purchaser or provider.
I think the thing that annoys me the most about this article is the "used cars for cheap everywhere because people are selling their gas guzzling SUV's". Ok; so; people are going to buy those used cars because the Big 3 went under... the same used cars no one can afford now; when things are ten times worse than they are now? And... used cars don't last forever... so when people want NEW cars, you're going to have every American who buys a new car ship even more of our money overseas; out of the country...
The Big 3 aren't 100's of banks out to screw people; they're companies that have far deeper roots in our economies than we realize.
Not to mention... the bailout money would be used to sustain business so that they can keep researching alternative fuels and energy sources. GM is already doing everything they can to cut back on costs so believe me, you won't catch their higher-ups with Wall Street bonuses and resort conferences. No, they want to survive. And they deserve to.
Chevy makes more vehicles with fuel economy over 30 mpg's than any other car company, btw. So there goes that excuse.
And no, I don't work for any of them, I just think people don't realize what will happen if they go away."
It makes my blood boil... I want to track down this Finkelstein person and
