From all the honking I'm led to believe they were cars. However, I could tell they weren't from Detroit because they weren't using their corporate private jets to travel.
Many people much more educated on the subject than I am have weighed in on the auto companies bailout. There is a lot to discuss on tax incentives, steel costs, labor contracts, nationalism, efficiency standards, and out-of-touch distribution models. The bottom line is that the free market should run its course.
The free market only cares about one thing: Sell me a product that I want at a price I can afford. I'm not talking about features of quality, power, or sturdiness. It's not about my generation versus my father's or my children's. It's about the fact that Detroit churned out massive amounts of vehicles during this decade and still lost market share. If we carry the domestics through this recession, they'll simply fail on the other side.
I have no desire to see tens of thousands or even millions lose their jobs. I have no desire to see competition diminished. I do think splitting the 3 companies into 5 or 10 or 15 that are independently profitable is the way to go. The great thing is that although bureaucrats are completely incapable of doing much at all, the free market is really good at determining what is sustainable. So split them up, parcel them out, and create smaller companies that focus on cars that are affordable during a recession.
3 comments:
I definitely think the Big 3 should be forced into a bankruptcy position, from my understanding that's the only way they can shed or reorganized their dozens of ridiculous brands due to their contracts with dealerships. I do however believe that the Big 3 were serving the market at that time when they were building huge SUV's. In fact just yesterday, I was flanked on both sides by three moms, each driving blinged-out Suburbans. No one forced them to buy those... it's the typical materialistic attitude driving all this, not just the Big 3's thirst for revenues.
I agree with your comment on the thirst, and both sides got what they wanted. Toyota, Land Rover, and—amazingly—Porsche made huge SUVs, too.
The key right now is that the demand has changed and GM wants you to pay even more. It's like they've added a residual payment.
They were certainly within their free market right, and possible obligation, to sell what they could. However, they didn't leave themselves an exit strategy other than begging. And that's where I draw the line.
Keep in mind that for a number of years when Detroit was forced to build crap to meet gov't regs, the Japanese builders were being subsidized big time by their government in both the steel and auto industries. The US automakers are just trying to get some of the same pie, especially after seeing waht Wall Street and the banks were able to do.
The real problem is that the gov't over regulates and now over invests in the free market, thus screwing the whole system up.
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