Remember all the debating on whether or not to bailout the auto industry? Well apparently they're almost done deciding what money will be given for the short-term. Being a slightly ignorant citizen, I thought the federal government wasn't going to help them because they should have a lot of money but have been wasting it. Besides, it's it part of the free market to let failing companies die; survival of the fittest and stuff like that.
Yet 3 of the big car companies are looking for money since the economy hasn't been looking too good. GM and Chrysler even said that they "may go under if the government refuses to help". I'm no connoisseur of cars, so the possibility of two less companies showing glamorous car ads every 5 minutes don't seem to bad (if you don't consider the people who would be losing jobs and the tv networks losing the ad money).
And of course one has to ask, "Where is this bail money going to come from?" Why, from some other program originally meant to help car fuel efficiency. How is giving bail money to supposedly failing car companies going to help fuel efficiency? There is some chuck of information I must be missing, because I can't see any correlation between saving the company and the proper investment in fuel efficiency.
True the short term relief and then long term work sounds like a good plan, similar to how the New Deal dealt with the Great Depression, but the way this has been colored to me is that it might not make it past the President's desk because this short term solution is going to begin yet another industry reconstruction with another federal agency or job to keep an eye on it.
Should it all actually work out as planned, Obama will be the ones drawing up the long-er term plans. It'll be interesting if that'll get any attention with the rest of the economy to take care of.
EDIT:
I just saw this. So much for coming close to bailing out the car companies. Guess who’s resisting? The Republican minority.
3 comments:
I frankly do not support the American car companies. They style and such do not suit me. I honestly do not see the point in helping these people. Its thier own fault and faulty management that has caused them be in the situation they are in now. And when I look on the streets around here, I see more people driving foreign country cars. And in the overseas market, American cars aren't so top notch. There are other sectors of the economy that need attention more then this one. I think we should just overlook at the car companies for now and focus on other parts. On a side note, I see a bunch of new cars recently in the area. Odd since car sales on average have dropped significantly.
It's a really good question to ask where the government's money comes in general. We should always remember that the government's money comes from taxing the people, or from basically printing more money (yay inflation!) or borrowing from other countries.
Also the New Deal did not help the Great Depression, it made the Depression much worse, and made it last longer.
The reason why the GM and ford and other american companies are lagging on their sales is becasue not only are they unaffordable but nobody wants to buy them because they are so fuel inefficient. They get about 16 miles per gallon and the biggest joke is that some companies like escalades which get about 8 miles per gallon are beginning to make hybrids which would bring their gas milage up to a whooping 16 miles per gallon. I guess that wouldnt really matter anymore concidering how low the gas prices are but really if they want to get ahead they are gonna have to do something different.
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