Then you might as well admit then these companies are in fact Government companies, because if they fail, the taxpayer is on the hook for them.
But then again, does Government even remember that we have anti-trust laws, anymore?
Again, you are trying to argue dogma, not reality.
GM was indeed a complete government company because the government violated its own laws to save it in a way to pay political capital to folks.
Saving GM and Chrysler may be ideologically impure in the minds of some folks here, but from the pragmatic reality of the effects of them collapsing would have had on the overall economy, not to mention the manufacturing capability of the US as a whole, an argument for intervention to help can be made and made strongly and coherently.
If you believe watching the entire auto industry in the US collapse, because that’s exactly what would have happened, We aren’t talking just GM and Chrysler, we are talking nearly ever single part supplier in the nation would have been out of business inside of a few months, Ford literally would not have been able to build a car had this happened, those assembly plants for Toyota, Hyundai, Kia etc would have all ground to a halt as well as the supply chain literally collapsed under them.
That’s a huge issue, and a national one, and while your ideological dogma may say, let it happen the world will be better afterwards, that’s a 5 year global depression you are signing the US and World Economy up for to prove your ideological point, that like it or not, no sane leader, regardless of political stripe would sign up for.
So, something to save them was going to happen. If you think otherwise, you are just delusional. And no, it didn’t happen to save any unions... though sadly, there is no doubt that once a bailout was decided upon, folks did use it to exercise political pull and push to do some very nefarious things because like all parasites, if an opportunity happens to present itself they will take advantage of it.
Now, GM got a flat out bailout, treasury literally gave them cash in hand with no obligation to pay back... they got “stock” in a company that they later sold for an $11 Billion loss. So, GM got a complete pass, they avoided a true BK, their creditors were screwed over, and they could keep on doing what they had always been doing.. and guess what? They did.
Chrysler was given loans it had to repay, and so it had to change or die and guess what? of the two, which one do you think changed? Which one paid every penny back to the taxpayers? and is now a stronger, changed and better company?
Again, you can argue that nothing should have been done, but that’s just political ideological dogma, the facts on the ground were that like it or not, no politician was going to let a complete collapse of manufacturing occur. You may like to think they should have, and may not have liked how they handled it, but the reality is, no politician of any stripe was going to let that happen... your options were down to nationalization of them or subsidizing them.... Then the manner in which they would be subsidized.
Chrysler got a subsidization, GM got a temporary nationalization as well as a subsidization.