Don't Let Crisis Suck Down Auto Industry

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-20-2008
Don't Let Crisis Suck Down Auto Industry
136
Wed, 11-19-2008 - 10:13pm

I am focused here on just the U.S. auto industry. People are so focused on whether the companies deserve to go bankrupt. We can all debate that. That issue pales in comparison to what will happen if we let these companies go down in the midst of the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. As President Kennedy once said, timing is everything. And the timing could not be worse for a massive big three US auto company bankruptcy.

"U.S. auto companies employ nearly a quarter-million workers, and more than 730,000 other people have jobs producing the materials and parts that go into cars. About 1 million on top of that work in dealerships nationwide. If just one of the auto giants were to go belly up, some estimates put U.S. job losses next year as high as 2.5 million.
"If GM is telling us the truth, they go into bankruptcy and you see a cascade like you have never seen," said Sen. George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio, who was working on one rescue plan Wednesday. "If people want to go home and not do anything, I think that they're going to have that on their hands.""

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iOTm71rXkkZaLSOWaaIM11o06mNQD94IAPNG0

These millions of Americans are the families behind all those mortgages, all those CDOs, and the banking crisis. These are millions of the people who can't pay their bills. Stop the paychecks now to all these people, and you ain't seen nothing yet when it comes to America's foreclosures and this financial crisis.

Here is the link the Republicans don't get about American workers. We are they. Sell the worker out by making them lose their jobs to abused foreign labor and see what happens? We just did.

This is not the time to give the auto industry, auto executives, the auto unions, or whoever, their just due. We will cut off our noses to spite our faces.

And who are the ones who are all indignant about helping our auto industry in this time of need? The "Country First" Republican Senators of course - especially the ones in Southern States with foreign auto industry donors that stand to benefit from seeing the U.S. auto industry destroyed.

This is ridiculous. Why is anyone even listening to anything the Republicans are saying anymore in the midst of the disastrous fallout from their disastrous policies regarding . . . everything. Everything. Domestic policy. The economy. Foreign policy. The failed "war" against bin Ladin and fiasco in Iraq.

Let's save our auto industry and in the process save ourselves. The Republicans say the sky will fall if we save our the car companies, but the last time we saved Chrysler lo and behold it survived for decades. When the economy is better and not fed by fear, then if one or more of these companies goes down that's a different story. Now is not the time for that.

Let's not listen to the Republican parade of horribles. Let's not listen to the Republican fear-mongering about what will happen if we save the auto industry and the millions of jobs that it supports. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself. We've got to stick together to get through this.

And when the Democrats reenter the White House and bring some competence and integrity back to our government again, we'll all be a lot better off. Then we'll get through this with hope and lots of hard work.

Pages

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-25-2008
Sun, 11-23-2008 - 1:02pm

but the "desirable direction" is not where consumers want to go.


The proposals would make cars more expensive (US labor is more expensive than foreign labor), absent the $4.00 gas we saw for a few months,

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-25-2008
Sun, 11-23-2008 - 1:05pm

No, I won't.


Once the companies go through Chapter 11, and come out the other end,

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-25-2008
Sun, 11-23-2008 - 1:08pm

When

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-13-2008
Sun, 11-23-2008 - 1:39pm
This may be what we do, and absent significant terms, believe we should hold back investing in these companies. If the CEOs need it as badly as they claim, we need to mandate a change in their business practices.

Full length fiction: http://llhaesa.org/ (pronounced la.hay.ess.sa)



Full length fiction: worlds undone

"You have no power over my body..." ~ Anne Hutchinson

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-05-2008
Sun, 11-23-2008 - 3:08pm

no, no, no.

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-05-2008
Sun, 11-23-2008 - 3:12pm

i think that most of us agree that if some action is taken then change needs to occur within the management of the business.


did we do this with home mortgages when we bought those securities?


besides, our government is not the body that should be preaching to business about efficiency, marketability, and profitability.

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-13-2008
Sun, 11-23-2008 - 3:46pm

Government has its moments, and there are things it does well, and other things it does not. That is probably true of any organisation.


As an investor in businesses - which is my hope for how they handle this, then we have a right to influence how the company is run, to steer it in directions that are good for society - read that as more fuel efficient and environmentally sound vehicles.


Once we right the ship, I advocate selling at a profit and taking the government out of the business. This is true across the board, with one exception: I would like to see a government back, not to replace private lenders, but to see to setting market pace and conditions. It might thrive now, but slack off in better times, letting private industry


Full length fiction: worlds undone

"You have no power over my body..." ~ Anne Hutchinson

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-25-2008
Sun, 11-23-2008 - 5:22pm

First of all, the government is never "just" an investor... no other investor has the ability to put you out of business if it wants to.


As for most investors, they invest because they want a good return on their investment.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-13-2008
Sun, 11-23-2008 - 5:44pm

You misunderstand my point. There are very sound things a car company can do that is in keeping with desired societal goals. They have balked at higher mileage standards, and only recently conceded a bit on this issue.


Making greener cars that are more fuel efficient is what this marketplace now


Full length fiction: worlds undone

"You have no power over my body..." ~ Anne Hutchinson

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-25-2008
Sun, 11-23-2008 - 6:48pm

If higher mileage were more important to people than other features, they would buy higher mileage cars.

Pages