The Difference A Week Makes - Detroit 3 Now Asking For $50B Instead Of $25B For Bail Out

My business suffering badly due to the housing market collape, the credit for which lands mostly on Alan Greenspans lap. I am in furniture and cabinet making and lots of similar companies locally have already gone out of business. Having created this boom and bust cycle, I would like to know when I can expect fome $$$$$ from our gouvernment???

They call it capitalism but it is not.

— steve27t (View Profile)

Posted on 9/8/2008 12:14:26 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 7   

Give them nothing.

We live in a capitalist society and the government should not be responsible for bailing out poorly run companies.

— HSCenterconsole (View Profile)

Posted on 9/8/2008 12:44:12 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 7   

I have a real problem bailing these companies out with taxpayer money when they still haven't made the tough decisions to rationalize their brands and distribution network.

GM, in particular, would be well served to dramatically reduce the number of brands and dealers so that they could be more effective. They've proven now that they can build world class vehicles, but they have too many birds to feed to support all the divisions with product; this forces them to badge engineer vehicles which requires even more marketing dollars to support the additional vehicles. So it becomes a downward spiral that requires more and more money to support a dysfunctional system.

I don't see how $25, $50 or even a $100 billion is going to change a thing. I'm open to helping out if they make the tough decisions we all know needs to happen.

— Maverick2020 (View Profile)

Posted on 9/8/2008 12:46:02 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 5   

My opinion is, if its a bad show, it will be cancelled, if its a bad car, it will be discontinued. If its a bad COMPANY it should go BANKRUPT!

Stop propping up and subsidizing failed businesses. How will companies learn they can't rely on the government. AKA YOUR AND MY MONEY!

— Peyton18 (View Profile)

Posted on 9/8/2008 12:52:20 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 5   

cptamazing4, please see below for two excerpts from a piece in today's WSJ. I put the link below -- it is worth reading.

"The Detroit Three got into their current quandary by making decades of bad decisions, with some help from the United Auto Workers union. Yet despite the current crisis, General Motors is still paying dividends to shareholders, the car companies are paying bonuses to executives, and the private-equity billionaires at Cerberus who bought Chrysler are trying to reap enormous rewards from their risky investment. Meanwhile the UAW's Jobs Bank -- which pays laid-off workers for doing nothing -- remains in place."

"And what about the precedent the government would set? If we bail out Detroit, where do we stop? The newspaper industry is in financial trouble because more readers and advertisers are turning to the Internet. Newspapers are good for democracy -- Thomas Jefferson said he would choose newspapers over government, after all -- so shouldn't they get low-interest government loans to help them adjust to the Internet? Of course not, and ditto for Detroit."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122083202593108477.html?mod=djemEditorialPage

— HSCenterconsole (View Profile)

Posted on 9/8/2008 1:58:51 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 5   

cpt- u sound jealous and simple minded..why are you so mad?? lmao

— stash84 (View Profile)

Posted on 9/8/2008 2:54:42 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 5   

Do you really believe that calling people stupid is an argument? If you have a point, then state it. Even if the people here were stupid, that does not make them wrong.

It has been my observation that those who have to call others stupid for what essentially constitutes a lack on knowledge on their part, are themselves generally of low or mediocre intelligence.

— cdoke (View Profile)

Posted on 9/8/2008 3:02:42 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 5   

Then there are airlines to bail out, and more banks, plus another war or two. Lets hope SOMETHING changes in Washington soon, otherwise we are doomed.

— steve27t (View Profile)

Posted on 9/8/2008 3:56:38 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

If you’re saying let the big 3 fall, I say let the mortgage banks fall as well then. They made extremely bad decisions. Not only that, but it was compounded by the even poorer decisions made by idiotic consumers thinking they could afford houses and cars they couldn't. Nothing makes me laugh harder than the guy posting a picture or video of his new $100K MB, BMW or other similar car in front of his $200K house. I say F-you if you're losing your house right now. Why should I have to pay for your failures?!! But hey, thanks for the video posted on You Tube.

— FULEXUS (View Profile)

Posted on 9/8/2008 5:40:29 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

In another 10 years they will be asking fo another $50B

— LexSucks (View Profile)

Posted on 9/8/2008 2:47:55 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 6   

Bail them out, Japan would bail out honda or toyota if they had financial trouble, hell the prius was funded by the japanese government

— DWolff (View Profile)

Posted on 9/8/2008 10:20:25 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -2   

I love my American Car, but lets face it Folks, eventually America will import everything.

We just don't want to be a producing nation anymore.

With the Advent of WalMart, we don't want to pay for anything anymore either. What has come around is now going around. Boarded up Factories and decaying cities. We reap what we sow.

— mercuryguy (View Profile)

Posted on 9/8/2008 11:13:57 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

I think common working American bailing out Corporate America is a highly unpopular idea in the midst that people are loosing thier homes and/or going bankrupt at historic levels. These are symptoms of a troublesome economy on the horizon.

You didn't see this kind of stuff, to this degree occuring years ago. Something is wrong, but our Televisions are telling us everything is right.

I don't know, what do you think?

— mercuryguy (View Profile)

Posted on 9/8/2008 11:19:08 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1