wise_man on December 2, 2008 at 5:27 PM

More substantive commentary. Good to see you’re maintaining your usual standard.

This is not free money. This is a loan. Be honest here. Call it what it is: a loan.

wise_man on December 2, 2008 at 4:51 PM

You seem to miss the point. Why are the taxpayers being saddled with an enormous bill on the promise of a bunch of bumbling bozos that they will do a better job if they can get a helping hand from the cookie jar.

The executives’ salaries, when compared to the magnitude of the problem, is like a snow flake falling into the Pacific Ocean. What needs to happen is to allow the normal mechanism for troubled companies, Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The BK court, creditors and company executives get to determine the ‘Plan’ to exit out of Ch. 11 or they determine that solvency is a ‘non-starter’ and go into Ch. 7. Maybe some consolidation wouldn’t hurt. In Chapter 11 the Bk court and the trustee monitor the progress toward solvency and keep the executives honest. The problem with letting congress dictate terms, is that there is a ‘third rail’ here, the UAW. In Chapter 11 the UAW becomes one of the lessor players, kind of like one of the creditors and they will have to take a number. It could be that the UAW might have to enter Chapter 11 if F, GM and Chry aren’t required to make those payments to have people sitting at home or where ever they are, but not on the job making cars that no one wants.

The US auto industry, AKA – Ford, GM and Chrysler, needs to change the way it does business and doesn’t need to be coerced into making politically correct cars that people will still not buy.

REASON: I would pay the car off in 4 yrs and my children and grandchildren will pay for that car for the rest of their lives!

Save us all the cost– GO BANKRUPT!!

It worked real well for airline baggage inspectors, right?

After about ten years, or so. Well see some real progress.

(I really don’t care anymore. They’re gonna do what they’re gonna do and nobody’sgonna stop’m. )

Is government supposed to provide comic relief?

progressoverpeace on December 2, 2008 at 6:08 PM

I guess that’s all we can expect to get out of seeing our money going down the porcelain exit….

That’s why they are asking for a loan.

wise_man on December 2, 2008 at 5:17 PM
—–
I call it a bad business model, and one they need to show they understand is broken!

Lessee, they pay these union guys to sit on their asses, and make shoddy product compared to our competition to encourage people to come back more often!

This would be like little Timmy splitting his lemonade stand take with his sister, who just sits there, meanwhile putting salt in the lemonade to make his clients thirsty again faster.

This may have worked when Toyotas were funny looking and it was hard to find a mechanic to fix one. It does NOT work when my Toyota Tundra can out-do a Ford F-150 hands-down all day every day. And it was built in the U.S. of A. What’s not to love?

That said, all the UAW have to do is wait until Jan. 21st, and the Dems will give Ford, GM, Chrysler et al whatever they want to keep the voters bought.

We’re screwed. But at least my Tundra is paid for, so worst case I can live in it.

Mew

wise_man on December 2, 2008 at 5:02 PM

Finally, someone displays a little sense around here. So many members of the commentariat sound like members of Congress — “oooh, let those wasteful companies that built gas-guzzlers die!” — without understanding a few key points:

The government — including more than a few of the bozos now calling for Detroit to go BK are, thanks to endless laws and regulations, a major reason for the car-makers’ woes, just was they were/are in the banking charlie-foxtrot;

People — including some here — wanted big SUVs, at least until gas went sky-high. Then they expected Detroit to have some magic alternative (defying the state-of-the-art in technology and the laws of physics) ready overnight;

Banks — the ones who got the no-questions-asked handouts, remember? — have gotten shy about making car loans. Not enough people have $30K or more in hand to go out and buy;

Finally, while the Congress is having a good time braying about knowing more about the car industry than those who work in it, it is also getting ready to give Osama Obama a cool $500 billion more to spread among his chosen buddies. Ford’s request for $9 billion sounds pretty damn puny beside that.

Those who helped elect Obama by being such doctrinaire hardasses that they couldn’t support McCain now get a chance to help torpedo one of America’s last productive industries by doing the same thing. You guys going to be happy when the Big Three fall?

You have been away from corporate life too long. If any of these guys go to a $1/yr they can still fly back home every weekend on the corporate dime. Big companies like this have what is called an executive expense account. They charge it on the corporate card first class, or if they are really smart they do a standby on a shared lease private jet. Its billed out just like a commerical liner.

Lest us not be fooled.

“We just go in and play crossword puzzles, watch videos that someone brings in or read the newspaper,” he says. “Otherwise, I’ve just sat.”

If that doesn’t chill your bones nothing will.

did McCain win the election, whizzman? Oh, that’s right. He lost. So what are you doing here? You struck me as being one of the higher ranking lickspittles, judging from the shamelessness of the bullsh*t you spun for McCain..I would think he would have you gearing up for the big Amnesty 2.0 push coming next year. Don’t you have you some talking points, or some area of McCain’s anatomy to polish?

austinnelly on December 2, 2008 at 5:22 PM

F * ck you,.

Oh F F S

LimeyGeek on December 2, 2008 at 4:31 PM

The patheticness in this whole thing is ridiculous. Just don’t give them a damn bailout in the first place. The treatment of capitalism by big corporations and the Government is sad.