Wednesday, November 19, 2008
General Motors is losing money hand over fist. Their executives and many Democratic congressmen are running around pleading for the government to write billion dollar checks to help them pay their bills and re-tool to produce more fuel efficient cars.
This whole thing is going to make my head explode.
1) I have seen many claims about the number of jobs that will be lost if the auto industry "goes under," ranging from several hundred thousand to several million if you include the dealer network and suppliers. Really? Does anyone think they will just shut off the lights, lock the doors, and say "we had a good run."
Because that is not what happens in a bankruptcy. Obviously some people will lose their jobs, starting with management, but the factories will stay open, cars will get built, and everything will still chug along. When Macy's went bankrupt did the stores close down? When Delta Airlines when bankrupt did they ground all the planes and close the airports? No, that didn't happen. So why is everyone running around saying a million people are going to lose their jobs? Even if that did happen, those people would all just get jobs, in America, at Toyota, because Americans will still need to purchase cars.
2) The even more boneheaded thing is the universally agreed upon "true fact" that the U.S. auto manufacturers need to redesign their product lines to be more "green."
HOLY FUCKING SHIT IS THAT STUPID. Americans have already demonstrated time and time again that they don't want shitty little cars that have no power and get great gas mileage. Yeah, there were short-lived blips where this was not so, caused in the 1970's by the Sheiks and in 2008 by the Federal Reserve, but other than during exceptional times, Americans want trucks and cars that go fast. Are BMW and Mercedes running out of cash? No. Do they make fuel efficient cars? Not really. In fact, they don't even follow the current CAFE fuel efficiency standards, electing instead to just pay the fines.
So how is it going to help American auto manufacturers by forcing them to build cars that Americans want even less? They should call this plan the "Japanese and German Automotive Industry Full Employment Act of 2008." Yes, it will be awesome for our country when American cars are as reliable as MY FUCKING LAPTOP BATTERY. Or run off used Chinese restaurant cooking oil.
This whole thing is going to make my head explode.
1) I have seen many claims about the number of jobs that will be lost if the auto industry "goes under," ranging from several hundred thousand to several million if you include the dealer network and suppliers. Really? Does anyone think they will just shut off the lights, lock the doors, and say "we had a good run."
Because that is not what happens in a bankruptcy. Obviously some people will lose their jobs, starting with management, but the factories will stay open, cars will get built, and everything will still chug along. When Macy's went bankrupt did the stores close down? When Delta Airlines when bankrupt did they ground all the planes and close the airports? No, that didn't happen. So why is everyone running around saying a million people are going to lose their jobs? Even if that did happen, those people would all just get jobs, in America, at Toyota, because Americans will still need to purchase cars.
2) The even more boneheaded thing is the universally agreed upon "true fact" that the U.S. auto manufacturers need to redesign their product lines to be more "green."
HOLY FUCKING SHIT IS THAT STUPID. Americans have already demonstrated time and time again that they don't want shitty little cars that have no power and get great gas mileage. Yeah, there were short-lived blips where this was not so, caused in the 1970's by the Sheiks and in 2008 by the Federal Reserve, but other than during exceptional times, Americans want trucks and cars that go fast. Are BMW and Mercedes running out of cash? No. Do they make fuel efficient cars? Not really. In fact, they don't even follow the current CAFE fuel efficiency standards, electing instead to just pay the fines.
So how is it going to help American auto manufacturers by forcing them to build cars that Americans want even less? They should call this plan the "Japanese and German Automotive Industry Full Employment Act of 2008." Yes, it will be awesome for our country when American cars are as reliable as MY FUCKING LAPTOP BATTERY. Or run off used Chinese restaurant cooking oil.
