Comments on: Bailout Blues

By: Sean D. Martin

Sean D. Martin — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 22:19:11 +0000

what makes you think GM will be a better company next year than it is today?

The problems that the “big 3″ are having have been decades in the making. Why in the world would anyone think they’re going to fix things if they get a “loan” to tide them over for the next few months?

Let ‘em declare Chapter 11 if they have to. That’s the route that already exists. And that it often leads to the current crop of execs getting the axe is just a bonus.

By: Duros Hussein 62

Duros Hussein 62 — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:54:32 +0000

Works for me.

By: Parthenon

Parthenon — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:32:45 +0000

I’m kinda with you, Duros, but beyond the bonus even. I think all employees should split a five-ten percent company profit share. Hell of an incentive to want the company to do well, isn’t it? Profits higher = paycheck higher.

By: Duros Hussein 62

Duros Hussein 62 — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:31:24 +0000

what makes you think GM will be a better company next year than it is today?
I share this concern. There should be some sort of budget plan for them. Tell us how you plan to use the money first to make your companies better.

And executive salaries and bonuses don’t cut it.

I’ve always been amazed that some of the executives can take these HUGE bonuses and still sleep at night. Yeah, I get that it’s compensation for … something, but how much money do you need, fachrissakes?
If I were a CEO, I’d divide my bonus by the number of employees in the company and “share the wealth.”

Yeah, that’s right, I said it. Socialism.
Tell me why it’s a bad thing again?

By: PG

PG — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:48:27 +0000

I’m sticking to my health care analogy. Go for the expensive treatments if they have a reasonable chance of saving the patient; go into hospice-mode if this person is almost certainly going to die in the next 6 months no matter what you do.

All government involves rationing because we live in a world of scarcity. If we spend this money bailing out the auto industry, that’s money we won’t have for job training and relocation assistance if the auto industry hits this wall again in five years. For the proponents of the bailout, what makes you think GM will be a better company next year than it is today?

By: Kevin

Kevin — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:47:06 +0000

I wish it were that simple. After AIG’s latest romp, I’d just as soon let them fail – but the repercussions are too enormous.

Congress and whomever replaces Paulson (not soon enough) have to do a better job of getting these clowns to own up to their own culpability and in doing so, accept the consequences – and stop falling for the “if you don’t give me this loan I’ll blow my brains out right here and now on your nice white shag carpet” routine.

By: Oliver Willis

Oliver Willis — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:14:12 +0000

Well, that maybe assumes that they won’t fail after this infusion…

By: Parthenon

Parthenon — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 23:55:20 +0000

That’s kind of like saying ‘let my arteries fail and spend my health care money on my hands,’ isn’t it? Aren’t we asking for a castrophe if we let that many large businesses go down?

I don’t like it any more than you do, but if I’m to believe the conventional wisdom, we’ll have a swarm of locusts if we just let the bad businesses fail. It’s a little more complicated than ‘they wet their bed, they can lie in it.’