Should the US bailout the big three automakers?

[clayfoushee]

Originally Posted by Keithc8

The country is going to hell in a hand basket. I can not believe that the Goverment is trying to bail out these guys when they will go under anyway. Just a waste of tax payer money. We get to watch the value of our dollar go down the tubes everyday with this stupid stuff.
If they can't make it and there is a demand for more cars someone will come along and do it better and make a profit. If there is no demand then you do not deserve to be in bussines to just to keep people working.
Everyone says that we have to keep the UAW going because they and the car makers help support so many other jobs. I know with the UAW gone that there would be more jobs available because the car companies would not have to get stuff done out of the country. They could have more stuff built here and create more jobs. Has anyone thought about that in Washington. All they are worried about is taking care of their union buddies.
If I had to pay the money to my guys that the UAW makes no one could afford to buy an engine from me and I would be out of business. I just saw the other day where a robot loaded a mini spare into a trunk and all the guy had to go was set it of and bolt it down. You talk about lazy, these guys do not know how good they have it. This is the problem with this country compared to the world. We are spoiled and lazy as a whole and we can see where that has got us. These UAW guys would not last 2 weeks in my place because we have to pick some stuff up and work more than 8 hours a day.
A lot of us have worked hard just to see all of the greedy, lazy, stupid, theiving and corrupt people take us all down with them. When will it end? Is there a way we can start another country without all of these losers in it. We did that once and we ended up with them anyway. I guess us dumb people will just keep working. I just wish I had half the benfits of these UAW people. Good luck to all we need it.

Keith, your perspective is interesting considering what you do for a living. You might want to think about what happens to all the automotive suppliers, who also are in the aftermarket parts business. Without the steady income stream from US manufacturers, many of them would likely not make it. This is the very situation that Ford is currently most concerned about, even though their situation is stable at present, and they are not planning to seek Gov-backed loans.

What happens to you, when your parts supply begins to dry up? I guess you could start building high-performance versions of Asian-origin engines and importing your parts. The days of the internal combustion could be somewhat numbered anyway, so maybe you should start getting into high-performance hybrid technology.

Even backers don't like this situation, but the consequences of letting them fail appear to be very far reaching. I don't think anyone fully understands the extent of those possible consequences, and the question everyone should be asking is whether it is worth the risk. Do you like high-stakes "games of chicken?"