tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12703782.post6560667528341567267..comments2020-04-11T03:30:02.282-05:00Gary R. Welshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15185079937305083438noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12703782.post-48768389322357231072008-12-21T15:49:00.000-05:002008-12-21T15:49:00.000-05:00Well, if you want to talk about a waste of public money, I'd say saving the banks was an unalloyed act of crony capitalism.<BR/><BR/>The auto makers are genuinely building things that people need, and thanks to NAFTA and CAFTA and the WTO, they have to compete with countries where there are no environmental protection, worker safety, or wage and hour laws.<BR/><BR/>The Wal-Mart effect is having an effect on cars now, people are not buying quality, they're buying things you can't pronounce that were built in Mexico, China, Vietnam, and Korea cause they're dirt cheap.<BR/><BR/>This "free trade" should be repealed, it's a ploy by other countries that are sucking our blood out, the only people that like it are die hard Republicans and investment bankers.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12703782.post-44381103795322629272008-12-21T06:33:00.000-05:002008-12-21T06:33:00.000-05:00I'm not particularly a fan of Bush, but I think he did the right thing (considering the pile of manure he is in at the moment).<BR/><BR/>The leader we deserve would have stomped up and down (or done whatever it took) to prevent this pile we're in.<BR/><BR/>What is troubling to me is that in the back of my mind, I think powers behind him orchestrated the economic conditions we face today, in order to bring about global control of banking. <BR/><BR/>...maybe I'm wrong.M Theoryhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01892309818226431745noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12703782.post-76724553985027550562008-12-21T05:17:00.000-05:002008-12-21T05:17:00.000-05:00<B>Both of my grandfathers worked for GM, these companies remain the one job where one income can raise a family, lift them out of poverty, and provide enough for the children of that family to give them an education, it is the only part of the "Real America" if there ever was such a thing that is kind of left.</B><BR/><BR/>Funny, my parents made no where near UAW wages, yet they managed to buy a home, raise three kids, and send us to college (thou we had to pay for some of it, which I don't see an issue with that). I would say their combined income was $70Kish for years until they actually got additional education to get paid a little more by moving up the ladder.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12703782.post-68375334209439693252008-12-20T11:48:00.000-05:002008-12-20T11:48:00.000-05:00The auto companies have been getting bailed out in various ways for years. For instance, when they were mandated to certain CAFE specifications (going back perhaps 30 years or so), they whined about it being too hard until they got Congress to back off. More than once. Gee, do you think if they'd had their feet held to the fire maybe, just MAYBE, they'd be in better shape today?Downtown Indyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06239811599722585898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12703782.post-87887982765691001192008-12-20T10:58:00.000-05:002008-12-20T10:58:00.000-05:00Maybe if UNION workers didn't feel like they all deserved $30-40/hour, full dental benefits, full medical benefits, full eye benefits, paid while on strike, election days off so they can bus all the poor, uneducated voters to vote democrat, etc. etc. etc.Concerned Taxpayerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10952241910289966736noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12703782.post-73715373282613017282008-12-20T07:27:00.000-05:002008-12-20T07:27:00.000-05:00Cthulhu- I boo this because none of these industries, not the automakers, and not the financial institutions should be bailed out. It sends the message to all that they need not fix their fundamental flaws, which are great. Just go ahead, screw up as a way of business, and we'll take money from everyone and give it to you, letting you make you profits private, and your losses public.<BR/><BR/>What Ford, GM, and Chrysler represent is a clinging to the technology of the past. Frankly, I think it's pretty sad to have so many people take the years of their youth and turn it into nothing in particular by way of their education such that their best hope is a job that requires repetitive tasking. What a waste of an education and potential. <BR/><BR/>We should be more forward thinking as a nation, striving to be better educated, working towards the technologies of the future, which are the ones that pay the best. If you observe the history of enterprise, you will notice that the newest technologies pay workers the best, until they are surpassed by yet other technologies. Steel and auto manufacturing supplanted textiles, and in turn have been supplanted by communications and computers. The one exception being health care, but as a matter of public policy, we may kill that soon enough.<BR/><BR/>But legacy costs are contributing to the destruction of the automakers just as sure as they did with steel, and as sure as they will crush our governments at all levels. No enterprise can pay people substantial portions of what they once earned and continued benefits in exchange for being retired without it creating a killing drag on them. Just wait til you see what it does to our city governments across the USA.Mike Kolehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17573721231319244630noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12703782.post-89749469063206379862008-12-20T01:15:00.000-05:002008-12-20T01:15:00.000-05:00Downtown Indy: Now they declare bankruptcy and get bought up by a big bank looking to dodge taxes.<BR/><BR/>What have we learned?<BR/><BR/>Maybe the $10 billion that Morgan Stanley got would have been better off paying the American workers of GM and Chrysler to build American cars at the 70 plants they just idled, not counting their suppliers?<BR/><BR/>Just a hunch.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12703782.post-16572741144241001162008-12-19T19:06:00.000-05:002008-12-19T19:06:00.000-05:00Tonight's news had a report about Morgan Stanley handing out $10.3B in executive bonuses this week, after getting $10B in bailout money. <BR/><BR/>Yeah, we're fixing the problems handing out money.Downtown Indyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06239811599722585898noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12703782.post-22640708897653193382008-12-19T18:23:00.000-05:002008-12-19T18:23:00.000-05:00President Bush does the first thing in 8 years that isn't totally bogus and you boo him?<BR/><BR/>Both of my grandfathers worked for GM, these companies remain the one job where one income can raise a family, lift them out of poverty, and provide enough for the children of that family to give them an education, it is the only part of the "Real America" if there ever was such a thing that is kind of left.<BR/><BR/>I suppose that you figure that banks, which create nothing but debt slavery and worthless paper that serves as money deserve the other $686.1 Billion?<BR/><BR/>Or how about the Southern Republicans that subsidized foreign car makers like Honda to the tune of $3.2 Billion in their states and used the Big 3 Bailout as an excuse to break the living wage the unions provide?<BR/><BR/>I'll tell you what, when Wal-Mart, which is the largest employer and the richest company in America today, agrees to a social contract with America and offers anything resembling non-poverty level wages, and anything resembling health insurance for their 1.5 million hourly workers, and stops telling their employees to get on food stamps and Medicaid, I'll be just as mad about the bailout of GM as you are, until then, I stand by the fact that GM, Ford, and Chrysler are our only hope.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com