Meanwhile, the UAW is home jerking off, drinking bad beer and practicing union slogans.

Until the UAW is gone, never again will I even think about buying a Ford, GM or Chrysler.

NoDonkey on January 13, 2009 at 8:58 PM

There’s a bad car story buried here somewhere. I can just feel it…

I read “Starship Troopers” too.
By “companion”, do mean a continuation, a rebuttal, or both?

Count to 10 on January 13, 2009 at 12:52 PM

it is an argument, not that it is a direct one, on the nature of patriotism and service….

I love Ayn and may well go on strike the next four years, but my military family is more Robert oriented in political thought.

Tend to agree with that. I found that Heinlein’s “Starship Troopers” is the perfect companion piece to Atlas Shrugged.

JiangxiDad on January 13, 2009 at 12:26 PM

I figure Rand and Heinlein have interesting chess games over coffee in the afterlife.

Kevin in Southern Illinois on January 13, 2009 at 6:51 PM

Meanwhile, the UAW is home jerking off, drinking bad beer and practicing union slogans.

Until the UAW is gone, never again will I even think about buying a Ford, GM or Chrysler.

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/08/10/1020_toyota/index.htm

I work for Toyota in Southern Indiana and while we areweather plant shut downdays interspersed with half production days nobody is laid off. We have to report to work and do training maintanence on facility during the parts of days we aren’t doing production.

San Diego is an important Navy port, and the central valley and Mountains are nice places. It is LA and SF that screw the place up. California would be a red state if you just cut off the shoreline.

But isn’t San Diego on the shoreline?

We could move the ships to Oregon, um wait, or Washington State, ugh, that’s not good either.

How about we rent the port in San Diego and pay whatever hombre is HMFIC down there $1 a year, like we do for GITMO?

Since most of its inhabitants are either Mexicans or liberal Democrats, how about selling it back to Mexico.

I’d settle for a couple of cases of Dos X’s and a free taco for every citizen of the other 49.

‘cept Massachusetts. They can eat Barney Frank.

NoDonkey on January 13, 2009 at 3:04 PM

San Diego is an important Navy port, and the central valley and Mountains are nice places. It is LA and SF that screw the place up. California would be a red state if you just cut off the shoreline.

I can’t be the only one unhappy with the idea of using federal money to bail out that disaster California.

Since most of its inhabitants are either Mexicans or liberal Democrats, how about selling it back to Mexico.

I’d settle for a couple of cases of Dos X’s and a free taco for every citizen of the other 49.

‘cept Massachusetts. They can eat Barney Frank.

Can we apply this to states too? I can’t be the only one unhappy with the idea of using federal money to bail out that disaster California.

Bishop on January 13, 2009 at 11:13 AM

And cities also; especially cities.

In December, GMAC got $5 billion from the government’s $17.9 billion bailout of the domestic auto industry, which Sen. Dodd supported, and immediately lowered its lending standards. No longer would buyers need a credit rating of 700 or higher. Now, people qualify with scores as low as 621, which is 2 points above “poor” and 102 points below America’s median. As columnist George Will put it, GMAC is using taxpayers’ dollars (more accurately, money borrowed against tax receipts far into the future) to issue subprime loans.

Support Capitalism
Buy a Ford

UAW workers have nothing to do with the free market.

Let Ford, Chrysler and GM die along with the UAW, I’m not buying a thing these union jackasses shoddily throw together as long as I have a choice.

or

Support Capitalism
Buy a Ford

Like Barney Franks and Obama.

The messy little policy issue is that these GM products compete with those sold by Ford, Toyota, Honda and numerous other car makers that won’t benefit from GMAC’s cash infusion. And with the cost of financing often crucial to buyer decisions, the feds have now put the muscle of the state behind one company’s products.

…This is always what happens when politicians decide to muck around in private industry. Even when made with the best intentions, their policy decisions have unintended consequences that help some companies at the expense of others.

But as this blog noted in response:

First, Chrysler is owned by Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity investment firm which also has a majority stake in GMAC Financial Services (which is now becoming a bank holding company). Making cars isn’t their primary business. Ford, however, is first and foremost a car company that, well, sells cars, and has been more successful selling its product than the other Detroit automakers. Make of that what you will.

Second, it’s far from clear that GM’s zero-percent financing will do much for business. It didn’t do a lot for them previously, and not moving product is a big reason why GM’s in the taxpayer-bailout boat. Is this a case of throwing more money at an intractable problem?

JiangxiDad on January 13, 2009 at 12:26 PM

Of course, what I really mean by that last part is a) the story line only makes sense to me if Galt is God, with the ability to alter reality to what he thinks it should be, and b) there is a sequence of betray-by-a-kiss, tempted-by-the-devil, exorcism, and torture-on-a-cross (all metaphorically speaking) that look like allusions to the new testament.

Tend to agree with that. I found that Heinlein’s “Starship Troopers” is the perfect companion piece to Atlas Shrugged.

JiangxiDad on January 13, 2009 at 12:26 PM

I read “Starship Troopers” too.
By “companion”, do mean a continuation, a rebuttal, or both?

Instead of picking winners and losers, and of burdening manufacturers and other markets with social-political engineering like CAFE standards, Congress should butt out and let private enterprise fend for itself.

As you pointed out in a previous post, Ed, we haven’t learned, with SUV sales rising yet again. Those SUVs would be burning a lot more fuel without CAFE [only the largest SUVs are, due to gross vehicle weight, exempt from CAFE].

One way to affect the supply/demand curve is to reduce demand. CAFE and EISA are neutral, because they affect foreign and domestic car builders identically, and they have statistically reduced demand about 15%, thus decreasing each of our gasoline bills by about the same amount, as well as putting pressure on Iran and Russia to slow down or halt development of new strategic weapons due to softened demand in the fuel markets.

I did a google search and came up with this link from 2005:

http://ddo.typepad.com/ddo/2005/07/japanstyle_zomb.html

It’s sad that despite the evidence to the contrary, they spend the money anyway.