the american and canadian governments are pouring billions of dollars into the general motors sinkhole. general motors has been a basket case for years. they were a finance company that made cars on the side. any profits in recent years came from the financing division. we all now know what a house of cards the financing division was.
in exchange for the 40 billion dollar cash infusion, the american taxpayers will receive a 72.5% interest in a company that presently has a market cap of less than a billion dollars. not a good investment.
by owning 72.5% of the company the poor tax payers are also responsible for 72.5% of the losses. it doesn't seem like a good investment to me.
i don't know what the mood of taxpayers is in the united states but in canada about 90% of the tax payers now hate general motors and the canadian auto workers with a passion. i don't think any of these people are going to buy a chevy any time soon. i can understand their anger. people with no pension are having to pay for the pensions of auto workers who have had the sweetest of contracts for decades.
does the average american tax payer support the auto bailout?
one more thing, the stupid arseholes are closing down pontiac. pontiac makes the only american car i'd consider buying.
speaking of china....
23 comments:
I don't like it, but if we don't keep it..the devastation to the economy, those workers buy food, clothes, go on trips...if they dont have jobs then they dont go on trips which means they wont fly which means I dont have a job...and so on ...
sage - if you took the billions and used it to entice volkswagen or hyundai etc to set up shop in u.s. i think it would have a greater chance of success.
honda and toyota have successful north american operations, it seems to me that their business model would be a better investment.
I'm mixed - the American auto companies should only receive money if they make a commitment to changing their ways and producing reliable, fuel efficient cars.
The first car I ever owned was a 1956 Studebaker...I was 16 years old.
I paid 20 bucks for it,and it belched black smoke.
All the neighbothood girls wanted to go for a ride in it!
Best 20 buck I ever spent.
"i don't know what the mood of taxpayers is in the united states but in canada about 90% of the tax payers now hate general motors and the canadian auto workers with a passion. i don't think any of these people are going to buy a chevy any time soon. i can understand their anger. people with no pension are having to pay for the pensions of auto workers who have had the sweetest of contracts for decades."
With respect to the American auto industry, Mr. Pilgrim, I respectfully concur. I have a brazillion dollars of students loans to pay back over the next 30 years and no pension. Auto workers have the sweetest deal in town with little to no education and certainly no long term edu-debt. Wonder what that says about our values here in the great melting pot...?
I own two foreign cars (one Japanese, one German) for two simple reasons - they are more reliable and retain their value more than anything coming out of Detroit in recent years. Even though I'm shafted with my tax dollars I feel satisfied I'm not adding to the problem by further lining their pockets so they continue without making any changes.
rant over. thank you for listening. the end.
Geez... here we go! I do not blame the workers... hey, a good union is worth a bazillion bucks and more power to anyone who belongs to one.
It is the only protection that some folk have, and god bless them! They are certainly smarter than the minimum wage earners who accept and obey. I wish them well!
I do however blame Detriot... you selfish idiots.
What do I drive? The clown car is a Ford... a teeny tiney ford that gets 40 MPG...thank you Ford. It runs like crap and will die soon, but for $1,000 bucks for 3 years of service, that is a good deal.
But yes, as an American I am pissed beyond measure that the interest on this is going to cost me... the lowly low income witch... a bundle. I have enough to do to bale my government out of trouble... I do not need to bail out big business too.
Maybe they need to cut the big salaries off the upper end of their pay scale. Pay me all those fricken bucks and I'll show them where to cut. yikes! I am pissed! They have made such a mess of everything. I do not see how we can survive.
Billy... is there room in your garden shed for an old American crazy woman? I am ready to defect! I promise not to do anything to upset the wife... or you for that matter. I'll hunt mice and live off of what I can glean.
its one of those fucked if you do..and fucked if you dont...
Bruce works for Chrysler-Dodge and his store got to stay open. They have sold 4 new cars since the first of May. Bruce is an auto tech and people are not getting their cars fixed either. It's in a bad way the auto industry. And that my friend is why I am working 12 hours a day. Bruce has no work where he works but we need the insurance because of my breast cancer...you see how it goes, rock and a hard palce.
citizen - agreed but a greater emphasis has to be placed on bicycles and walking. oh yeah, ban drive through fast food outlets.
sling - it's a small fecking world! my first car was a 57 ford that i paid 20 bucks for. i sold it for $50 and the guy never made it home.
rocky - i don't know about the american contract but the canadian autoworkers get their kids tuition paid. it's feckin ridiculous!
ananda - but a strong union will kill a business that has weak management. the big three once had a near monopoly. they lost the monopoly but continued to negotiate labor contracts based on a captive market place.
yellowdog - once more you hit the nail on the head.
raven - has bruce lost his porn privileges with the economic downturn?
The Solstice looks real cool, but I hear it is shoddy. I've seen several on the roads so far.
Sage: So, the bailouts are necessary to save jobs? Well, so far they have helped GM push forward with plans to close US factories faster and open new plants in China.
Billy: Hyundai and its operations are already growing.
dmarks - the solstice reminds me of a corvette from the 50's.
remember the hyundai pony? total piece of junk, but the company now makes good cars.
Hyundai started out very bad. Just above Yugo. Now quality-wise, they are above all the Big 3.
I have only had one non-union job where I was not abused and taken advantage of by my employer. Most unions are not large and powerful.
But I do not always agree with them either. Do not approve of forced enrollment. My union does not do this and yeah... I've been a union rep. Wanna fight? I'll win!
I guess I better find a union shed elsewhere. ha
If the point of the bailout was to employ Chinese workers with U.S. tax dollars, I'd say it's working just fine.
ananda - i'm not criticizing the union. they did an excellent job for their members, too good in fact. it's management that caved in and agreed to contracts they couldn't afford.
tex - i really like chinese stuff. i'm sitting on a chinese chair and typing on a chinese keyboard connected to a chinese computer.............
Thank you for that, but I was not offended. I joke alot and people do not always get me. "Want to fight... I'll win" is something that my Squeaky says to me all the time to make me laugh when we don't agree.
We will not always agree, but I still like the heck out of you. And this is still one of my favorite places to visit.
But we do agree here... management did screw up. And hey... it is fine if you are not a union kind of guy. Just don't be one of those guys who doesn't like chocolate! I have no tolerance for them. (Big grin.) Sorry if I sounded like I was coming on too strong.
ananda - i like the heck out of me too so we agree on that.
satan is my brother-in-law, so be careful.
heart heart heart my honda built n canukistan. my best vehicle. except for the 67 imapala ss
uno - my corolla was assembled in canuckistan too. i wonder how many of its parts were made in china?
A great Australian car, a muscle car called the Holden Commodore, is sold as a left-hand drive Pontiac in the US and has done well, by all accounts.
canuckistan - LOL
btw, in case you don't go back to read the comments in my quiz post:
I would not, could not, in a box.
I could not, would not, with a fox.
I will not read Seuss with a mouse.
I will not read Seuss in the house.
I will not read Seuss here or there.
I will not read Seuss anywhere.
I prefer Dame Agatha.
You got it wrong so ha ha ha.
david - live and learn! i knew the g8 was made in australia but i didn't know about the long history of the holden commodore, thanks for the info.
rocky - maybe you're seuss denial.
David: Which Holden car was that being sold as a Pontiac?
I remember the GTO from just a few years ago. It was based on a Holden muscle car: "The Pontiac GTO was relaunched in the United States in 2004, based on the Holden Monaro's V platform"
It was a failure.
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