http://notesfromoffcenter.disqus.com/society and theology from the view of a Christian pragmatist.enFri, 27 Feb 2009 21:22:42 -0000http://notes-from-offcenter.com/2008/11/19/more-reasons-why-we-should-not-care-if-domestic-automakers-tank/#comment-6717036<p>Hey Drew,<br> I hope your not claiming to be an auto expert. If you were you would know that Ford's quality is equal and/or better than Toyota and Honda. A little research on the subject and you would be on your way to being an auto expert.</p>TummlerFri, 27 Feb 2009 21:22:42 -0000http://notes-from-offcenter.com/2008/11/19/more-reasons-why-we-should-not-care-if-domestic-automakers-tank/#comment-3913110<p>It isn't about cars and trucks. It's about Main Street, not Wall Street.</p><p>Unfortunately, I continue to find it not at all surprising that Washington agreed to a $700 billion dollar bailout for irresponsible Wall Street firms, but refuses to approve a $25 billion dollar loan for the auto industry. They're willing to bail out irresponsible homeowners who bought more home than they could afford and the banks that approved the mortgages, but don't seem to care if those folks actually have a job to be able to pay off that mortgage.</p><p>Remember all that Wall Street vs. Main Street rhetoric the republicans were using during the election? Funny how that's disappeared now. I'm not surprised because for 7 years, the Big 3 tried to meet with the Bush Administration, and got no where. And that was back when things were good for them.</p><p>Unfortunately, for Chapter 11 to work for GM, for example, people would have to continue buying GM cars during restructuring. Why buy a car from a company that may not be around in 6 months to service the warranty? Not gonna happen. Chapter 11 will insure that GM fails.</p><p>And GM's 123,000 employees? Feh. That's a drop in the bucket when we consider all of the suppliers who will also be run out of business, not to mention the service industry jobs in and around factory towns. Heck, several of those towns themselves are already bankrupt.</p><p>I think people have no idea what Michigan is like these days. We've had almost double the rate of unemployment of the rest of the country for years. There are cities like my hometown, which honestly haven't recovered since the Carter Administration. Nearly every other house on my parents' street is for sale for about half what folks initially paid for it. And many of the retired UAW workers, that people here seem to believe are living high on the hog, have *already* had their pensions negotiated away, and now their 401Ks are worthless too.</p><p>Oh, and in Michigan, we pay for our schools using property taxes. Say goodbye to our already troubled school systems once GM goes out of business and everyone either loses their house through foreclosure and/or moves to some other state.</p><p>$25 billion vs. $700 billion? Really? That's the tipping point? That's like arguing that a person can lose weight by getting a haircut.</p><p>Attach strings to these loans, heck, use ropes. But throwing hundreds of thousands of people out of work is not a reasonable way to bring the economy back from collapse.</p>AlanThu, 20 Nov 2008 09:30:05 -0000http://notes-from-offcenter.com/2008/11/19/more-reasons-why-we-should-not-care-if-domestic-automakers-tank/#comment-3906264<p>off gays... a peculiar choice of words my friend...<br>;-)</p>JimWed, 19 Nov 2008 21:28:14 -0000http://notes-from-offcenter.com/2008/11/19/more-reasons-why-we-should-not-care-if-domestic-automakers-tank/#comment-3896964<p>Hey once we get off of gays we aren't that far off most of the time.</p>Drew TatuskoWed, 19 Nov 2008 12:22:43 -0000http://notes-from-offcenter.com/2008/11/19/more-reasons-why-we-should-not-care-if-domestic-automakers-tank/#comment-3896679<p>This has got to stop. We've agreed far too much lately.</p>JimWed, 19 Nov 2008 12:09:32 -0000