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.

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iVillage Member
Registered: 08-25-2008
Sun, 11-23-2008 - 9:03am

ah you're letting your partisanship show toots...


Please explain how George Bush is responsible for the Big 3 failing.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-30-2007
Sun, 11-23-2008 - 9:14am

Michigan isn't the only place that has factories of the Big 3.

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-13-2008
Sun, 11-23-2008 - 9:30am

Not to mention at a time when we need to retool industry, we allow the producers of what is still our most visible products to face oblivion.


We are a nation of automobiles; it played a huge role in developing this nation. Allowing our car makers to fade into dust is a huge mistake.


Is an investment in the companies such a bad idea?


Full length fiction: worlds undone

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

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-05-2008
Sun, 11-23-2008 - 9:49am

We can't afford to see millions more Americans go out of work in one fell swoop when we can prevent it. That's millions more defaults, millions less in consumer demand, millions less in taxpayers. The effect likely would be horrible and could cause companies in other industries to fold (not just financials either).


wait, wait, wait a second.

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-05-2008
Sun, 11-23-2008 - 9:59am

Is an investment in the companies such a bad idea?

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2006
Sun, 11-23-2008 - 10:03am

The government is often to blame for our down fall.

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 06-05-2008
Sun, 11-23-2008 - 10:08am
no, no, it's the american people to blame.

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 09-08-2006
Sun, 11-23-2008 - 10:45am
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iVillage Member
Registered: 06-05-2008
Sun, 11-23-2008 - 11:06am
i agree with you.

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-20-2008
Sun, 11-23-2008 - 11:51am

"so i ask again, if other industries fail, as you claim they will if the Big 3 go under"

? I am talking about preventing this from happening. You are playing word games.

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