What Should Be Done About the Auto Industry Bailout?
What should be done about the 25 billion dollar "bridge loan" that auto executives are seeking from Congress, and that they dislike hearing others refer to as a "bailout."
This is a conumdrum that is baffling many people, and I was going to say that I have no suggestions. But the more I think about it the more it seems that the solution is on the side of leaving it to the companies to work out things on their own, by producing cars that are more environmentally friendly and less wasteful of the world's diminishing resources -- while borrowing in the short term from their oil industry buddies, who are flush with cash.
Meanwhile, besides going to Congress with hat in hand, the industry's plea should not have been made by guys who presided over their companies while getting into this bind and to which their decisions surely contributed. As typical "fat cats" they were too obese, with their salaries said to be in the astronomical neighborhood of 20 million apiece. What person on the planet does anything at all that he or she deserves to be paid that much?
The industry would have made a better case if it had left at home in their saunas the very men who bore some responsibility for their firms' financial shortfalls and who were not therefore slated to be fired and instead would be left in place and trusted to preside over the use -- and most likely the misuse -- of those requested billions as well. Instead the companies should have sent before Congress their versions of ombudsmen, if there are any. I mean those people who are sometimes used by newspapers to criticize the paper's policies from a supposedly independent point of view. Maybe such auto ombudsmen wouldn't have been free of the corporate grip either, but that would've still been a risk worth taking.
This is a conumdrum that is baffling many people, and I was going to say that I have no suggestions. But the more I think about it the more it seems that the solution is on the side of leaving it to the companies to work out things on their own, by producing cars that are more environmentally friendly and less wasteful of the world's diminishing resources -- while borrowing in the short term from their oil industry buddies, who are flush with cash.
Meanwhile, besides going to Congress with hat in hand, the industry's plea should not have been made by guys who presided over their companies while getting into this bind and to which their decisions surely contributed. As typical "fat cats" they were too obese, with their salaries said to be in the astronomical neighborhood of 20 million apiece. What person on the planet does anything at all that he or she deserves to be paid that much?
The industry would have made a better case if it had left at home in their saunas the very men who bore some responsibility for their firms' financial shortfalls and who were not therefore slated to be fired and instead would be left in place and trusted to preside over the use -- and most likely the misuse -- of those requested billions as well. Instead the companies should have sent before Congress their versions of ombudsmen, if there are any. I mean those people who are sometimes used by newspapers to criticize the paper's policies from a supposedly independent point of view. Maybe such auto ombudsmen wouldn't have been free of the corporate grip either, but that would've still been a risk worth taking.
posted by Carl (aka Sofarsogoo) | 8:55 PM
2 Comments:
I think WE need a bailout.
Check out current bailouts for us.
Bailout Types for 2009
I do not mind helping out those in need. But it is kind of like DSD's ex asking for extra money in the monthly child support check. She can blow and go, not being responsible. She can have fabulous Alaskan vacations that we can not afford without a thought of saving a dime. Why should we be concerned if her power is turned off?
Because then it affects LittleMan. He is innocent of her BS and he shouldn't have to suffer. Kind of like the auto worker working for a living wage.
I don't know the answers, but I am pretty sure letting them fail isn't it.
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