Why I Say No To Auto Bailouts, The Industry Like Human Nature Will Never Change

Count me in on the "let Detroit go bankrupt crowd" along with him and many others, as this handout is nothing more than the fulfillment of promises made by Obama and democrats to win the union votes on the backs of taxpayers who aren't all democrats, simple as that. It's high time the UAW got the message, "the party's over" they're not the only game in town and they are mostly responsible for the bankruptcy of the car industry, certainly not we Americans or anyone else.


Of coarse there are others who feel the opposite is true, I'm not one of them

So Union concessions and or an industry wide management heave ho along with the ending of cafe fuel standards are the recipe for rebuilding the industry to be more competitive than it obviously is now not the mommy and daddy like Socialist bailout that's being requested now.One of the finer gems of the little donkey and elephant show put on the other day in Washington was these CEO's offering to take a salary of $1 in exchange for 25 billion. Only congress would think that was a good idea and lord knows they might just think we're stupid enough to buy it too. (After all we elected a guy with no experience president, anything's possible)

It's no secret the UAW, Teamsters, the AFT and NEA practically own the democratic party, and we the taxpayers have no responsibility to keep the promises of "give away happy democrats" and union heads. Groups who have gotten fairly rich and way too powerful on the backs of it's members, who by the way also have gotten fairly wealthy themselves averaging $70 an hour in wages and benefits, when American staffed Japanese automakers in America make a little more than half and aren't at the bailout trough complaining all the way taking our baby, the automobile, and figuring a better and cheaper way to make them right in our own back yards.

So since the unions won't give up concessions which they swear up and down not to do, and management won't voluntarily pack their bags filled with jumbo golden parachutes they will all either A) become unemployed or (B) the companies will enter bankruptcy as they should anyways, and then they can all work themselves out of the hole they collectively created like so many other companies and their employees have done successfully over the years, and will well into the future.

Chrysler in the '80s led by Lee Iacocca are a perfect example of that route being successfully navigated in this industry, and nobody knows this better than Michigan born and bred Mitt Romney who's NY Times Op Ed from yesterday is excerpted below and who's father has saved the industry himself a few times down the annals of carmakers..

Let Detroit Go Bankrupt -

Op-Ed Contributor - NYTimes.com: "IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.

Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.

I love cars, American cars. I was born in Detroit, the son of an auto chief executive. In 1954, my dad, George Romney, was tapped to run American Motors when its president suddenly died. The company itself was on life support — banks were threatening to deal it a death blow. The stock collapsed. I watched Dad work to turn the company around — and years later at business school, they were still talking about it. From the lessons of that turnaround, and from my own experiences, I have several prescriptions for Detroit’s automakers."

"First, their huge disadvantage in costs relative to foreign brands must be eliminated. That means new labor agreements to align pay and benefits to match those of workers at competitors like BMW, Honda, Nissan and Toyota. Furthermore, retiree benefits must be reduced so that the total burden per auto for domestic makers is not higher than that of foreign producers.

That extra burden is estimated to be more than $2,000 per car. Think what that means: Ford, for example, needs to cut $2,000 worth of features and quality out of its Taurus to compete with Toyota’s Avalon. Of course the Avalon feels like a better product — it has $2,000 more put into it. Considering this disadvantage, Detroit has done a remarkable job of designing and engineering its cars. But if this cost penalty persists, any bailout will only delay the inevitable.

Second, management as is must go. . continued

A familiar site throughout the bailout bonanza has been the exorbitant opulence of these executives who thought nothing of flying into to town for their beggars banquet in a nice little private jet. First class on commercial, come on that's for chumps like congressman and senators, (oh wait, the dem congressmen and women at least own their own private jets for puddle jumping around the country f*****g us all left and right, pun intended)

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