GM: Poised for a turnaround? (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Saving General Motors
The only way to save General Motors is to let it go bankrupt, said Michael E. Levine in The Wall Street Journal. It has too many dealerships and too many brands to survive, and if the government keeps it on life support it "won't change fast enough."
We all share the blame for the SUV-era, said Jeffrey D. Sachs in The Washington Post. So punishing the auto industry by letting it crumble is pointless, especially since it could "destroy the U.S. economy in the process." Instead, "we should fix the industry with a sense of national responsibility and purpose."
It's ludicrous to suggest that GM, Ford, and Chrysler are poised for a turnaround "if only we keep them afloat a while longer," said John Hinderaker in Power Line. The companies are losing so much money they're essentially worthless. The only thing that will be saved if the government steps in will be the United Auto Workers, "otherwise slated for extinction."
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Recent comments | 8 total
If you have ever owned a GM car, you know what junk it is. Not only in terms of gas milage but just plain endurance. I would NEVER buy a Detroit product and have owned Honda's and one Toyota over the last 35 years. They have worked well, gave good milage and all lasted for several hundred thousand miles. One Honda, an Accord, went for 400,00 miles. It is not the US worker who is at fault, it is basic US corporate culture and disregard for consumers. Let them go bankrupt.
The auto industry has lobbied congress to create regulation and red-tape traps to eliminate any new start-up electric or hybrid vehicle companies from ever making it to light. The set up the urban landscape to insure that only motorized vehicles could access and keep trains to a few marginal areas. They made sure they kept making fuel guzzling engines so that their glorified engineers would not have to think of new ways to tackle old problems. In the meantime, the problem was not inside, it was outside around the world. More fuel efficient vehicles were being built and sold in Europe, Japan, India, Korea, now China and the Soviet Union. Now, once again, globalization comes to haunt these cushy dinosaurs. We've been there - and then returned to build big thirsty V8 and V10 engines - big trucks and SUVs that because of their categories they were excempt from their MPG limitations. American made vehicles were catching up to the Toyota, Honda, Benz, BMW, Volvo, Subaru and the others - what happened?
The bailout money should be given to the auto industry on the contingency that within two years all the passenger cars they make will get at least 50-60 miles a gallon and don't wear out until the 400,000-500,000 mile mark. They have the technology to do that; it has just been suppressed. If the US automakers refuse to make such quality upgrades, then they shouldn't get a dime of taxpayer's money and the oil companies should be the ones to bail them out. Just giving them money now without the pre-conditions will just prolong their demise at our expense.
Let's just get one or two things straight...Mr. Sachs says we are ALL to blame...well yes and no...President Bush is the one who pushed for Americans to go into debt buying houses and cars they couldn't afford and couldn't afford to maintain. Many decided to purchase these items because Bush insisted it was the "American" thing to do and good for the economy. In reality it was only good for Bush and his croonies. The sad fact is though, if the auto industry goes, we better be ready for the entire economy to feel the heat...parts dealers, car dealerships, more banks, the effects will be widespread and worse than many imagine.
I just happened to read over the internet that GM manufactures about 17% of the worlds total vehicles and is also the employer for about 3 Million people worldwide directly or indirectly. Just imagine the amount of carnage it may cause once the government lets GM go. It baffles my understanding for sure.
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