Posted on 06/03/2009 7:48:22 PM PDT by St. Louis Conservative
Studebaker, Nash-Kelvinator, Packard, Hudson, Stutz, Pierce-Arrow, Stanley, Checker and American Motors were once household names of the U.S. auto industry. Unlike General Motors in our time, they were not too big to fail. Despite mergers and rescue efforts by their owners, each was shut down. Their legacy lives on as classic cars, restored with erotic affection by collectors.
GM's end is different. In the spirit of the new age, General Motors, like Citigroup and AIG, will be kept alive in an industrial coma. One has to ask: Is this where the entire country is headed? Since January, it looks like it is.
After GM's bondholders last weekend refused to answer the bell for another round with Uncle Sam, the White House put out a statement: "As a result, the President has deemed GM's plan viable and will be making available about $30 billion of additional federal assistance to support GM's restructuring plan."
Read that sentence again, slowly. It holds what look like the keywords of the American future: the president, deems, viable, making available, federal assistance, support, restructuring plan.
Last week's column in this space, "Obama vs. the Beach Boys," drew some responses from readers who thought its tone too nostalgic for a lost era of fast but inefficient cars with low mileage and high maintenance. Recognize and embrace the future, they said, which includes high-tech bikes and high-tech cars.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
“Obama’s America: Too Fat to Fail”
Until it pops.
And the TITANIC was too big to sink, too...”Even God himself could not sink her”...
Every vehicle will lose money and be subsidized by the US taxpayers. It will be Amtrak times 100.
Erotic?
Oh, yeah... I forgot. Dagmars.
Ping
“Industrial Coma”
Great line and describes GM and Chrysler’s situation to a tee.
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