NEWS: Bail The Shit Out Of Detroit

POLITICS: Bail The Shit Out Of Detroit

It’s time for America to get its bailout on again. Detroit has turned into a giant bag of ass and we need to do something about it. They want 25 billion. I say we give it to them. Why? Because I’m a socialist? Nope. Because we are heading toward a deep, deep recession and the last thing we need is to lose 3 million jobs.

So, we can pay for it with a bailout, or pay for it in unemployment insurance, welfare and an increase in crime.

Oh, I know. The car companies are complete fuck ups. No argument here. While the right wing continues its rant that this is the fault of unions, I’m going to actually go with the facts. The mistakes of the auto companies were made at the top. They were made by throwing their weight behind cars like the Hummer, while Toyota was going with the Prius. While Detroit was cranking out Explorers and Escalades, Japan was whipping out the Civic Hybrid. Most of us crazy liberals just sat back watching the retarded actions of both government and the auto companies with depressed amusement. Yeah, I wrote “government.” Bush is very responsible for the current state of the auto industry because he gave massive tax breaks to people buying Hummers and refused to up standards. What we are seeing now is the result of a fantastically shortsighted and heinous energy policy. But, then, what has Bush touched that has not turned into a flaming pile of shit?

Our retarded Republican friends would like everyone to think the auto companies are in this position because of unions. Uh huh. Right. The workers are at fault for the collapse of the company. That’s usually how it works. Please ignore the facts.

The horrible, horrible union has done its part to save the company, so shut the fuck up, you incredible idiots. The estimated cost of health care for each GM car is $1,500. Considering most other countries have universal health care, our auto industry is starting in a hole, which just happens to coincide with the profit difference.



But, the right wing is against health care, so we can’t do that. And we can’t have unions. And we can’t save the car companies with a bail out. Sorry, we just have to let ‘em fold and put 3 million Americans out of work. Then we will not pass an extension for unemployment and they will have to become criminals to survive. Then we will put them in jail where they belong. Fucking criminal assholes.

Automobile companies are in bad shape because they made bad choices. They went for the short sighted big buck, the one that would make them the most in the moment, you know, like all those financial companies we just bailed out. Except, the car company’s actions were stupid instead of criminal. And now they are getting hammered by…right, the credit problem – which was created by a lack of regulation on Wall Street. Companies like GM survive on credit. They need it to pay the companies that produce the parts they use to make cars. With no credit, the whole thing collapses. And it’s the reason we can’t allow GM to declare bankruptcy.

GM won't be able to file Chapter 11.

Sweet. Total liquidation. That should be awesome for any future wars we have to fight. We don’t need those companies to produce equipment for our forces or anything.

What everyone also seems to be missing are Detroit’s advances. The companies are actually turning the corner, and in some cases possibly moving ahead of Japan.

No bailout means kissing the Volt and possibly its technology good bye.

Sounds awesome. The Volt has been in development for a decade, so let’s toss it out the window. It’s totally what we need with peak oil staring us in the face and companies like Tesla falling apart because of the credit crunch.

Or, you know, we could go with the “free market” plan. Let’s see how that would play out.

Sweet. There’s your free market at work. I’m sure the right wing would love our car companies and their technology being owned by the Chinese. Right? Hello?

The bailout needs to happen, but unlike the idiotic one we just gave to Wall Street, it should come with strings. First, fire every asshole working at the top of these companies. Get ‘em out. They are idiots and have been fighting against regulation and EPA standards that would have pushed them in the direction of profitability today. Fuck ‘em. Bring in someone who is innovative and has actually made a lot of money, like a Bill Gates or a Steve Jobs. Make standards and new regulations part of the bailout deal. We have been at a political standstill for years because of the many lawmakers beholden to automakers and their employees. Now it is time to get what should have been done years ago done.

Of course, the right sees this as a way to destroy one of America’s most powerful unions, so they are against it. You’ll see a lot of the assholes who voted for the Wall Street bailout saying this is a bad idea because they want to kill the union. They are okay losing 3 million jobs for ideology. Meanwhile, they can’t handle the idea of universal healthcare and love spending shitloads of money in Iraq. They are amazing idiots. If you support the Iraq War and all it has cost, yet argue against a bailout, please explain to me why I shouldn’t be able to shit down your throat. Because I don’t see any difference between you and a toilet.

FearTheReaper is a writer, actor and stand up comedian. Check back each Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for more from FearTheReaper and read his blog, Stop All Monsters.

Good article. Your linked article raises some grave consequences for letting GM go under:

So beyond losing developed and ready for market electric-car technology permanently to the Chinese - tech the US has already spent hundreds of millions of dollars and decades perfecting - we would give the Chinese a huge dealer network and the most recognized brand name in the auto industry. The Chinese would then gradually move Chevy and Buick production to China, undercutting every other automaker's costs, including nonunion Japanese plants here in the US.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime deal for the Chinese and a disaster for America if GM is allowed to go under.

This should have been done years ago. The city of Detroit in general is at its lowest morale point ever. If the government focused all this bailout effort on the working man instead of stockbrokers, it might be a small pat on the back for Bush before he gets the hell out of office.

detroit is fucked. no doubt about it.

Greetings from Detroit; it took me a while to respond to this as I first had to raise an old timey fire brigade to douse some house fires while twiddling handlebar mustaches.

As a lifetime resident of the area (the great J.J. Walker once noted when he heckled me from the stage of Improv Vegas that "You're white. You're not from Detroit. You just drive through it to get to the airport), I'm fully aware of just how deep the Auto Industry's roots are under all of our feet - not just in Michigan, but the country.

That said, there are three things that should be looked at as a bottom line to this "bailout," that, whether you're liberal, conservative or mormon, are irrefutably a good idea.

1. The cost to current social services, unemployment etc. for three million autoworkers (the number is actually much higher, when you count the suppliers that would instantly go under) for the first year would cost the taxpayers more than triple than the $25B bailout. Just do the division; $25B / 3M = $8,300 per worker. That won't even cover the first quarter of unemployment benefits. If they're denied benefits and end up on the street, well, have you seen Beyond the Thunderdome? Well, that's what Detroit looks like now, imagine it with 3M more homeless.

2. Auto workers buy American cars. When you watch a car commercial in Michigan you hear the same phrase at the end, "$$$ for A, Z, D customers." That may sound foreign to most of you, but those are employee pricing plans from the big 3. Henry Ford's original motivation for developing mass production was so that the people who build the product, can afford to buy it. That's held true, and over the years the big three has owed much of their sales to auto workers buying a new Chevy every year, and one for their daughter on her 16th birthday. These people love American cars, and they buy a lot of them. As the automakers moved jobs out of the country, they didn't take into account that they were also losing sales.

3. This whole idea that cash and economics obey the laws of gravity is ridiculous. Republicans are still preaching the trickle down theory? Really? Listen, I'm a rich guy , from a wealthy family, and I love tax cuts for the middle class. Rich Guys need to realize that it's the poor people who buy all your shit. Even if the tax rate on the wealthy had to be raised to 49%, it would still make sense to give the money to the bottom - because they would buy from the rich at 51%. Obviously, that's an extreme, so what's the problem with being taxed at 33% so that the poor can give it back to me at 67%? Sounds awesome to me.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a riot to participate in.

^^^ all very good points.

CNN puts the cost of a 50% reduction by the big 3 like this:

So, spending $25 billion to bail GM pays for itself more than twice over the first year, since you not only save the $50 billion in revenue to government but you also avoid billions in government expenses like unemployment and charity healthcare for now-uninsured unemployed.

The bailout is needed because those huge givebacks in UAW contracts take full effect in 2010, vastly increasing US automaker's competitiveness. Total auto sales are now the worst in 25 years but are expected to substantially recover in 2010.

I say begrudgingly to help, I think their lack of sales as more to do with the economy as a whole than people not wanting the huge gas gusseling behemoths.

What's 25 Billion dollars in the scheme of things ? The Fed will just fire up the presses and create it out of thin air anyway.

I think any potential sale of parent GM to it's Chinese partner would HAVE to be blocked in much the same way as the ill-fated Dubai port debacle. It's national security for the new millenium.

Not gonna happen under a GOP administration. The Republicans love sending good jobs overseas almost as much as they love breaking unions.

Well let's hope the big three can holdout until January. But I fear we may be postponing the inevitable.I do have a problem with Cerebus though,there is going to have to be a sacrificial lamb here to appease the gods and it might as well be the privately owned one. I mean Nardelli ? Really? (And while they are at it slap a extra tariff on all Daimler products sold here ,since they thoroughly trashed Chrysler)

Regardless of whether you are PRO or CON on the auto bailout idea, I think it is inevitable that there will be a large layoffs for these companies. It seems to me like the current and coming year sales of vehicles will continue to drop off such that the decreased demand will cause a equivalent reduction in workforce. The bailout might help the solvency of the automakers but it is going to do little to stem the decline in demand.

+wf+

mk700c and the great Mr. Stiles have it nailed, as do you, FTR. What irks me is the same thing that has irked me for twenty eight years now; good data and a strong case get derailed by a tightass with an extra dollar to squeeze out of the dying middle class and the whole thing goes to shit. The more you have the more you have to gain fr4om society as a whole being stable and well occupied, so its a mystery how so many well to do people still take the Marie Antoinette attitude. Eventually that ends poorly for all, but particularly poor Marie.

25 billion dollars is a pittance compared to the real costs of the obvious alternatives. Still, an aid package needs to be carefully drafted and managed. I nominate mk700c as Omnibudsman to the US auto industry.

Good article. Myths about the Detroit 3 from yesterdays Free Press.

I do have a bit of an issue with this statement:

I could see that statement possibly applying to Rick Wagoner (GM) who has had his position for a decade or so (I'm sure someone will correct me). GM's domestic and international market share has declined during Wagoner's tenure. Allan Mullally (Ford) became CEO in 2006. He's sold divisions that did not fit Ford future plans (most of the former premier auto group) and put money into new model development (especially small cars). He's also cutting costs by adapting european models for the US market (and moving production here) instead of designing separate models. Bob Nardelli (Chrysler) has been in position for a little more than a year and is playing a much more difficult hand. It's difficult to see how you could blame Mullally or Nardelli for the current situation and I think you can make make a case that Mullally has made good decisions in his relatively short tenure. CEO transitions can be difficult under good circumstances. I'm not sure that the 'off with their heads' approach is the best strategy here.

As to the 'their big and slow an losing money' strawman - everyone (even Toyota) will lose money on their North American operations this year. (I read this in the Free Press or the Detroit News or the Ann Arbor News yesterday, but can't find the link now). It's an inevitable consequence of a market contracting as rapidly as the market for cars and trucks has in 2008.

Per Wesley Clark, it's not just an economic, but a National Security issue.

Ford CEO Alan Mulally on CNN today..

here

I would like to hear one of the CEO of these companies say that because of their lack of fore sight they are partly to blame for the companies demise and that its not just the economy.

edit.

Nobody is making money in the auto market right now. Toyota sales are off 23%, even Prius sales are down. Honda sales are down over 20%.

At a seasonally adjusted annual sales rate of 10.6 million units, nobody makes money - not even Toyota.

Consumer Reports released their reliability survey a few weeks ago and no US brand was in the top 10.

Consumer Reports

yes, but:

The UAW only recently got reasonable after YEARS of dragging down the Big 3.. and you all may not trust Big Business but if you think the UAW isn't Big Business your crazy.. and why let the Fed oversee the bailout when the Fed can't manage a balanced budget or any other reasonable management feat?

This is a Democrat payout to their loyal Union voters... business as usual.

i think the reasoning is it would be far worse from a economic stand point to lay off thousands of workers. not to mention what it would do to the communities that rely on those workers putting money into the economy

This is what happens when you have a reactive society, if we had a proactive society this would not even be going on.

"Our retarded Republican friends "

This site is a joke. You are a joke. The people who run this site and tolerate this bullshit are a joke.

Whether or not I agree with your argument doesn't even matter. The vitriol that spews forth unchecked in this forum is pathetic and exclusionary. Don't like someone's opinion? Insult them. Awesome. Sounds like something O'Reilly would do.

For a site and a writer that so openly mock religion, I've never seen such a confluence of blind dogmatic horseshit. Simply put, you are a poor excuse for a writer and wanna be pundit.

better watch it, FTR. if you don't start playing nice, he might vote against your bailout plan.

possibly. i think it has more to do with our ridiculously consumption-oriented society; i think the reactive nature of our society is a symptom of being overly concerned with getting stuff whether we can afford it or not.