10 Reasons why we should help the American Automotive Industry

1. It would be one in many decisive step toward putting America on the forefront of the Green revolution — “Do we really want to depend on Japan, Korea, and Germany (and soon China) for the future of our cars and related technology or do we want it grown here in the USA?” for our generation the new Green Energy revolution will be equivalent to the space race of the 60s. Whoever gets there first will be a power player in the world economy. And guess what the American Auto Industry got there first and will be able to regain that spot if we help them through this difficult time. By 2010 the GM Volt will roll off the assembly line. This will be the first fully electric production vehicle produced. Talk about Toyota all you want, the truth of the matter is that Toyota’s answer to the Volt is a plug in Prius. That vehicle will be able to travel 7 miles on a charge vs. the Chevy Volt’s 40 miles on a charge. That vehicle will be gas base vs. the Volt being a true electric car. Beside that US auto manufactures are working on Plug in hybrid, Clean diesels and hydrogen vehicles.

2. They do produce cars that American want to drive –.Just a short time ago that was the SUVs. The American appetite for the SUVs did not change until gas prices became unbearable for most consumer. That did not happen until price where well over 2.50 per gallon. And that happened in 2007. And even with the change in gas prices GM still sold, more than 9.3 million vehicles, keeping the brand in a dead heat with Toyota as the world’s largest automaker. It was the second-best sales year in GM’s 100-year history. US auto companies change gear to pick-up the production of their smaller car lines in 2008. And in 2009, dealer showrooms will boast about 140 models with highway fuel economy ratings of more than 30 miles per gallon. That’s an increase of 25 percent over the number of 30 mpg products offered in 2008. Model year 2009 vehicles will include 25 hybrid and eight clean diesel models, as well as autos employing fuel-efficient technologies like continuously variable transmissions and cylinder deactivation. By 2010 the GM Volt will roll off the assembly line. This will be the first fully electric production vehicle produced. Soon to be followed by plug in hybrids and on the horizon hydrogen vehicles (which are already being driven by selected consumers around the country).

3. We are Americans and if we are going to succeed in this global economy we need to stick together – Ask yourself in these hard economic times would Japan allow Toyota to fail, would Germany allow Volkswagen? More importantly given the lessons of the financial meltdown, we need to return our economy to one that’s based on producing real products not financial paper pushing. Sure, we should have bailed out textiles before it all went overseas. We should have slowed the loss of electronics. But because we didn’t save those industries doesn’t mean we shouldn’t now save the American auto industry–particularly given the lesson of the financial collapse. We need to save the auto industry because cars are one of the few things we make anymore–and we need to focus our economic recovery on the things we make rather than on the bubbles we finance.

4. They Saved Us not to very long ago – We owe the Auto Industry some help. They helped save this country in World War II. If we loose our leading Manufacturing base do you really want to rely on Japan and Germany to make our tanks and planes. I’m sure this would be wonderful news for Toyota and Volkswagen but I’m not so sure I would want my country’s security dependent on their good will toward us.

5. It is very likely that our country will make money by helping the US auto industry- In 1980 we guaranteed $1.5 billion of private loans to Chrysler. Chrysler paid back the loans with interest and the US government made $400 million on the deal.

6. If they went under, the job losses would touch every State in the union — Nearly 3 million jobs would be lost in the first year alone – with another 2.5 million to follow over the next two years. 1 out of every 10 people employed in America today is tired to services that is related to the U.S. auto industry. These people would see job cuts as well.

7. American Standard of living would be adversely affected — Personal income in the United States would drop by more than $150.7 billion in the first year. “To put GM failing into perspective, in 1998 during a GM strike that lasted for 3 months, the aggregate US GDP dropped by 1/3rd”. Think about that, one company being on strike for only 3 month cut our Gross Domestic Product by a third. The government standing back helped cause the Great Depression. Did we not learn the lessons so painfully taught to our grandparents.

8. The US tax base would see substantial erosion — The cost to local, state, and federal governments could reach $156.4 billion over three years in lost taxes, and unemployment and health care assistance. This affects every American not just those tied to the auto industry. Meanwhile the most of the profits of foreign-brand cars assembled or imported in the United States go back to their home countries. Yes, foreign companies pay tax’s on their operation here in the USA, the bulk of there operations feed their country’s tax base not ours.

9. Domestic automobile production would more than likely fall to zero – even by international producers, due to supplier bankruptcies — “If GM goes down, it will take down companies like Lear and Johnson Controls,” That will shut Ford down, and it would shut down production at Toyota and Honda,” John Wolkonowicz, an analyst for Global Insight, told Automotive News. “They would go down like dominoes.”

10. “We’re lending $120 billion to an insurance company. There’s $700 billion set aside for banks and others whose leaders enriched themselves while ruining their companies and our economy. The leaders in the US auto industry have made their mistakes–plenty of them–but they didn’t enrich themselves beyond decency as those other executives did. Today’s economic problems, brought on by subprime mortgages, credit default swaps, a credit freeze and a stock market collapse, were caused by those other folks not the US auto industry”.

However, workers should have the right to join them if they please. Secondly, one shouldn’t have to pay dues. After all of the union corruption that we’ve had in the past, it should be criminal to force workers to join these organizations and take their money to fund. I don’t have a problem with workers uniting. I have a problem with forced unionizing and powerful, corrupt union management. If the Big 3 were in a Right to Work state, I don’t think they’d have all of the problems they have now. They’d still have some, of course, but I think they’d be in a much better state to compete with Toyota and Honda (which produce cars HERE for comparable wages for workers — yet aren’t continually in trouble and asking for handouts).

I don’t know that only people who put bolts into panels don’t want to spend their time learning new things. As HL Mencken once said, “No one ever lost money underestimating the intelligence of the American public.”

As a people, Americans do not value life-long learning. How else to explain why football is the national religion and the high esteem most Americans hold professional athletes in, while still using what started out, and remains, an insulting term for those who love to learn: geeks.

For an understanding of how bad things were before unions, consider reading “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair; or go visit almost any slaughterhouse in America, most especially the ones where most of the workers are Latino.

For an understanding of how bad it is – and how bad the attitude can be – read “Rivethead” by an author whose name escapes me.

This is a turning point for not only the American auto industry, but America in general. Let’s hope we make it.

Libertarians =/= anarchists.

First of all, what kind of an idiot thinks their life will be set when their only skill is ‘plugging bolts into a panel’? Workers that make their living this easily should know that one day they will be redundant and/or replaceable by a cheap robot or a cheap Mexican worker. Why should we even spend millions to send that person through public school if their professional lives will culminate in being able to ‘plug bolts into a panel’? Is this ‘contribution’ to our industrial prowess even worth $23/hour? We’re finding out now that it is not. Oh, wait, Chrysler supposedly found this out 30 years ago when we bailed them out the first time!

The fact is that forcing workers to join unions and pay dues, takes money away from workers, encourages corruption and bleeds industry dry by forcing manufacturers to basically guarantee a comfortable livelihood for every ‘bolt plugger’. If Michigan were a ‘right to work’ state, I don’t think Detroit would have the problems it has. The fact is, the bolt plugger should have realized long ago that his job would be easy to replace — if it weren’t for the powerful union — and should have been spending his free time (40 hour work weeks must be nice) re-educating himself. Although it would have been preferable for him to have paid attention during all that free schooling, gotten a scholarship to go to a college and gone on to invent the robot that could plug bolts into panels even faster, cheaper, and more efficiently. Unfortunately, GM wouldn’t have been able to buy the robot without raising Cain with the Union, so instead the bolt plugger could have created a new car manufacturer that made more reliable, fuel-efficient, and desirable cars and laughed as GM went bankrupt. But no, the bolt cutter instead spent high school drunk and is now crying to his Congressman that his job should be preserved because he’s “too dumb to learn.”

I think libertarians are a bit crazy because we definitely need government spending on roads and infrastructure, defense and education among other things, but like hell our tax money should go to an inefficient loser companies like GM, Ford and Chrysler. I mean come on, they have a built-in market in government agencies. There are more than 80,000 government units around the country and I guarantee no cop is going to be driving around in a foreign made squad car. Even if these companies only catered to governments, they should make BOATLOADS of cash. Instead, they waste money turning Fox’s Sunday Football pregame show into a running infomercial for the new F150. IDIOTS!!! IDIOTS ALL OF THEM!!!

http://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/08/candle-makers-petition.asp