Yeah, things are going to get tough and folks will have to go thru some hard times. Nobody is denying that or really wanting to minimize it. But the sky won’t fall, the states won’t be destitute and every business that caters to every business that has some connection to the auto industry won’t fail.

And the cause for GM et al’s distress isn’t just because of the current recession and credit freeze. Those certainly don’t help but this has been a long time coming and stems largely (but not solely, let’s try not to take the simplistic view that there was a single cause) from teh auto companies taking a very short-term view of their businesses and getting kicked in the marketplace by competitors who are better at running a company.

duros, you buy into too much right wing spin. These companies aren’t in danger because of pensions or salaries. These companies are in danger because a year long recession coupled with a bank-initiated credit freeze caused a 40% across the board drop in sales. The non-American car companies aren’t doing so hot either,

Just a thought, here; What if the government, instead of just handing over a blank check to the auto makers, took over the employees health benefits and pensions? Universal health care Lite? That would free up more capital for the manufacturer, wouldn’t it?

Yeah, I know, SOCIALISM BAD!!!! AHHHH!! Tough shit. Want my money? Make it work.

Also, this amount is less than Wall Street bonuses this year.

Do what Michael Moore says, buy a controlling interest (their market caps are next to nothing), throw out the upper management, and tell them what to build, like FDR did in 1942 to the auto makers (no more cars, Sherman tanks)

Second, what do you think of Michael Moore’s solution, nationalize the auto industry, whose market cap is like 4 magic beans right now, fire the upper management, and tell them what to do like we did in WWII?

Exactly. How many times do we have to try trickle-down before everyone acknowledges the obvious that it just doesn’t work?

The big concern is “oh, the workers will lose their jobs”. Fine, then focus any efforts on specifically helping the workers keep or find/train for new jobs.

And hysteria is not a supportable argument. So thanks for calming down.

OK, the only one of those three postings that specifically mentions the number of people who might become unemployed is the third:

“”The American automobile industry is vital to the economy. One out of every 10 people in this country are employed in a service related to the auto industry. If a plant closes, so does their supplier, and in effect if the American auto industry goes down, we will lose 3 million jobs the first year. We would lose another 2.5 million jobs to follow,” Trecek said.

Trecek is a GM car dealer which gives him some insight into how that aspect of the auto industry works, but I wouldn’t rely on him for an expert view of the larger economy. Especially since he’s using the “one out of every 10 people” statistic which I pointed out is bogus in an earlier comment.

Yeah. Concentrating on non-sustainable lines like gas-guzzling SUVs over longer term strategies has nothing to do with it. The only thing stopping car companies from printing money is medical costs.

Riiight.

The government needs to set up a national program to extend unemployment benefits, provide educational grants, and provide some relocation money for people who will be hurt by the inevitable fall of the US auto industry. Giving money to the top-end of any of these companies ensures nothing for the workers. Give some incentives to the workers to learn a new trade and move somewhere where their labor is needed instead, and incrase their unemployment so they can stay on their feet until they get a new job in another industry.

After that, if I was king, I’d make cheap offers to Honda, Toyota, and Hyundai to buy up the Big 3’s infrastructure/buildings/equipment, etc. There _are_profitable car-makers in America, and they happen to be Asian companies that know how to design and make a car people want. GM, Ford, and Chrysler haven’t managed to do this since the 1960’s.

I don’t think any of these bailouts are a good idea. I’m more interested in propping up people and not badly run companies.

And yes I clearly have no idea what I’m talking about, because unlike auto industry CEOs I don’t think 1+1=3 plus a bailout.

The truth is, this money is coming from the Federal Reserve and is created money, not banked money; it’s not coming out of anybody’s pocket and there’s no end to it. It is debt as currency in the purest of forms. In the short term, it will patch up the leaks for the borrower, but in the long term it means devaluation and inflation for the currency.

What’s going to be tricky will be the implementation of the so- called bailout plan. My current feeling is the underlying political objective is to bust the unions once and for all, using the dying auto industry as the WMD of this economic war.

The bailout-plan will probably stipulate that the big three, under the guise of cutting costs, be “mandated” to setup operations in right-to-work states. As time passes, the industry will posture a complete shift of production to right-to-work states unless the unions completely cooperate.

It has been, as it always will be, about the money. I’m not talking about the bailout money here, I’m talking about real wealth generated from production and sales. The real question is who stands to benefit from that piece of the pie.

You’ve got a certain amount of charm yourself, don’t'cha?

So the people who pass the pieces of money cake around with sticky fingers get billions to prop up their criminal enterprise, but the sad shell of what is left of the manufacturing base in this country gets no help at all. That is terminally stupid.

I really hope that your numbers are right and mine are wrong, but hope is not a plan.

You’re being a schmuck. The only thing preventing Detroit auto companies from being profitable – extravagantly profitable — are healthcare and retirement costs, costs that are fully nationalized in Europe and Japan.

Every car coming out of Detroit carries $2K worth of health costs for present and retired employees. Institute national health care, and those costs disappear from the automakers, and voila, the US starts selling cars at home and overseas again.