Automakers Are Lining Up Aid, But Just Don't Call It a Bailout

The Washington Post ^ | 12-4-2005 | Jeffrey H. Birnbaum and Sholnn Freeman

[5050 no line]

Other parts of the world maufacturers attract buyers by producing cars with good gas mileage, good performance and enough space and attractive features. A car is designed to get a person (or persons) from A to B. It is NOT a statement of personal position in society. (Yeah, it is currently but thats just so much Bullshxt)

Once we get a grip on this handle we will all (globally) be better off. There are all sorts of benefits that emerge from this mind set. (Sorry if U just bought a gas guzzling Ute)

GM and the other car builders - Get real....

[Iris7]

Will do.

[Iris7]

"....smacks of desperation and lack of imagination."

Unfortunately I agree.

[Iris7]

Easily could be that you are correct.

I remember Federal Government health care wealth from when I was in the Service. People have no idea what government control of health care will be like. It won't be pretty when people realize they are paying a lot more for a lot less.

[Tarpon]

Yes, but none of that stops the auto makers from designing and building better cars. Better engines get better gas mileage.

Many 'foreign cars' are now made in the U.S.A. But I do agree, getting rid of regulations and other crap is generally a good thing for all.

[Iris7]

I have no idea what will come about in future years.

The UAW guys have no idea what effectively governmental control will mean for them. Certainly a less secure and affluent existence at any rate. Imagine FIAT writ large.

[nmh]

Yeah ... the airlines.

We might as well just have the government bail everyone out. State owned airlines. State owned car manufactures. Hey, isn't that what they do in Communist China? ;)

[nyconse]

Actually for years,the government has forced GM and Ford to design cars with the goal of improving gas mileage. They used to build one mini-van and sell it below cost because it gave them the average mileage meeded to keep the government off their backs. You have no idea. On the one hand the government,regulates health safety, minimum wage, pensions etc, then it almost forces companies to move plants overseas by forcing companies to compete with the bowl of rice crowd and by allowing Japanese,Chinese and European companies access to our markiets while not allowing us free access to their markets. In China's case, they were found to be dumping garments on the market below cost in huge numbers-larger than that allowed. The result can be viewed all over the south. Garment manufacturing plants are closed, an entire industry wiped out.

and European companies access to our market while not permitting US compaies access to their markets.

[nyconse]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1534136/posts


Read the above -JP Stanley is moving jobs to India...American workers-union and non-union are in big trouble. These are well paying financial jobs, and they are leaving this country.

[Designer]

"Some day those dollars will have to be repaid. And it will be on the backs of our great grandchildren."

Oh, thank God!

For a minute I thought I might have to pay!

(requisite sarc/)

[Designer]

"Name ANOTHER business that SCREWS up and has OUR government bailing them out."

Railroads

Airlines

Farmers

Oil

Savings and Loans

Foreign governments

Oh, you mean besides those?

[gogeo]

Please add me to the ping list.

[gogeo]

Like fuel injection and electronic ignition?

[-YYZ-]

Your post 88 reads like a bunch of protectionist nonsense straight out of the UAW handbook. Tell me where I can find these Japanese or European cars being dumped below cost, so I can find one. Last I checked, for comparable classes of cars, the Japanese and European products are more expensive. And Ford and GM are all over the European market, having had subsidiaries there for years.

You'll have a hard time convincing me that Ford and GM's problems are in large part due to foreign protectionism. Poor management and product planning are mostly to blame, IMO, with overpaid lazy union workers a contributory cause.

[Sergio]

Another issue that hasn't been covered is excess production capacity. Just about every manufacturer, domestic and import suffers from this.

Let's say you are a manufacturer and you have everything in place to enable you to build 150K vehicles per year. Yet consistently, year after year, you barely sell 100K vehicles. How long can you hope to stay in business when you are building vehicles that no one will buy, not because they are bad, but because there are just too many of them.

Ferrari has made it a point to always stop production just short of demand. They do this to keep a high per vehicle price, and to preserve brand image, but the result is that they sell just about every car they produce, before it's even built.

Automakers cannot hope to be profitable if they continue to produce more vehicles than the market can bear. There is just simply too much supply and not enough demand.

Best Regards

Sergio

[Tares]

Please add me to the auto ping list. Thanks.

[PsyOp]

We already did this once in 1981-82. It was supposed to fix the problem. It didn't.

The problem isn't just the unions, though they're a big part. CEO and upper level management at most companies are being paid way too much. Between the leeches at the bottom and the vampires at the top, it's no wonder these companies hemorage proofits. And what's left gets suckked up by the government in terms of taxes and regulation.

regulatory and tax cllimate, more than the wages, are what drives business out of this country, I think.

What I'd like to see is a tax incentive that says if a companies pays it's highest paid employee no more than say, 50 times the wage of the lowest employee, then it will pay no corporate taxes. That figure would have to include all pay and benefits.

This would, I believe, give the corporations an incentive to keep employee pay at reasonable levels. And give all company workers the incentive to keep the company profitable.

The los in corporates tax to the state and federal government would be returned in the form of income and sales taxes.

[nmh]

Oh, how right you are!

I totally forgot about that.

Sigh ... .