Quote:
Originally Posted by MajorTom
...I'm a firm believer that American workers need to be guaranteed jobs. We live in a wealthy society, but because of that there are incredible extremes of class. From the ridiculously wealthy to the desperately poor. They say the American dream is that any man can be whatever he wants. But that's not always true.
Unions allow this to some extent. A person can get a union job and in a few years begin making their maximum pay rate. Then they can work for his 30 years or so and then retire with a pension and live decently. So it's very reasonable to support a union.
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See, that's exactly the attitude that has put our country where it is, at least from a labor perspective. I agree, the people that run the companies have as much, or more, to blame as labor, but it took both to get us where we are today. Why should anyone in America be guaranteed anything that is not spelled out in our Constitution? You act like every worker in America has a
right to be employeed, a
right to periodic wage increases, a
right to have someone else provide for their retirement income. Sorry, but those things are your responsibility, not mine, a company's or the federal govenments.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DGthe3
Socialism is state ownership of business. This is a loan from the govenrment. Not even close. The cash will let them pay the bills while the market is down. GM has been restructuring, making better agreements, and designing best in class products. Government not protecting business is part of what got the big three into this mess. The Germans protect their automakers, the Japanese protect theirs, the Koreans protect theirs. In North America, we opened doors and let everybody flood the market.
Predictions say that GM, and the others, will return to profitability in 2010 when the new union agreement comes into effect. As for the private sector giving them a loan, its kinda hard for anyone to get a loan. Let alone a multi billion dollar loan for a business in debt where their market is down 30%. Lastly,where would 3 million or so workers going to find a job during a recession?
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Blah, blah,blah. The reason the big 3 are failing is simple. Fewer and fewer people are buying their product but they are unable/unwilling to restructure their business to compensate for the market changes. Give me 3 qualified things that, if given a "loan" by the taxpayers, GM is going to rebound in the future. Chances are you can't, which is why the private sector is not willing to loan the money to them. If you really think that the capital is not available, then you have no idea how little $25 billion dollars is in the world of big business. There are thousands of places that are ready and willign to make a loan of that magnitude even in today's economy, provided you are not a risk to default. The Big 3 are.