Thursday, October 30, 2008

Bail Out GM?

There seems to be support gathering to bail out GM. As I've blogged several times on the reasons GM has arrived facing bankruptcy, I would not vote to save them. All of the so-called "big three" do not deserve to be bailed out using taxpayer dollars. They have gotten to big, too unwieldy, to union constrained, too huge pension and health plans and out-run and out-flanked by nimbler foreign companies who do not have the unions calling the shots; at this time both union and management appear to be on the same page.

Not true at GM.

Jerry Flint, a former Forbes Senior Editor, who has covered the automotive industry since 1958, says "The leaders of GM have made mistakes-plenty of them-but they didn't enrich themselves beyond decency." Depends what Mr. Flint's definition is of "enrich". I wonder if some of the stockholders who held their stock up to the present, enriched themselves within decency. Some say we need GM to turn out tanks and trucks needed for another war. Some say that Japan wouldn't let there largest vehicle builder go into bankruptcy. I don't know and neither does any writer. Japan vehicle makers do not appear to have made many mistakes and their products are selling quite well here in the United States of America.

Would a lot of people be hurt if GM went under? Yes, and the financial and insurance markets would take another hit. The stockholders have already suffered. They can sell or suffer more. Under no circumstance do I see GM stock prices going back to the heady days of the early and mid 2000's. This is still a capitalist country and whoever has expertise and access to capital, as long as entrepreneurs can find and keep the right management people, GM's position on this planet will be replaced by others with greater managerial skills, more common sense and drive.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

How to vote them out ! ! !

What can we do?

We need to focus on "un-electing" those Senators and Representatives who voted "yes" for the Bailout. They were willing to ignore the 90% of us who were against the Bailout, clearly demonstrating that they do NOT represent us. Further, the Bailout is not working--and these corrupt companies are using our tax dollars instead to pay for executive bonuses, junkets, and to buy each other out. It's got to stop--and that mean getting rid of those who voted "yes."

A new group called the Constituent Response Team has been working to do just that. 

CRT has put together a Bailout Vote Map that makes it easy (as a mouse click) to find out how your Senators and Representatives voted. Tell all your family and friends about it, so they can find out how their Representative and Senators voted before they cast their ballot on Tuesday. 

The Constituent Response Team has also just published pre-customized web banners and ads targeted at those who voted "yes" for the Bailout. You can easily paste these ads onto your website or blog (or social networking site) using simple embedding code (provided off course). (Added benefit: no need to worry about postal regulations or newspaper deadlines!) If your Senator or Congress member voted for the Bailout, a customized web-banner probably already exists to assist you in getting the word out to vote against them.

If you are interested in either, check out Constituent Response at http://www.constituentresponse.com . The Bailout Vote Map is on the main page; the "Vote 'no" on incumbents who voted 'yes'" ads are under the Host CRT Ads link.