Like Nobody Saw That One Coming
General Motors, proud maker of decades and decades of crappy cars (and I know, because my Detroiter parents bought them and were always driving them off to be serviced) has already gotten $13.4 billion of our money. And now -- big surprise! -- they're asking for $16.6 billion more. Says CNN:
In addition, it is seeking $7.7 billion in loans to convert production from light trucks to more fuel efficient cars under an Energy Department loan program.
I'm having this wistful feeling now. Remember when we, in this country, acted kind of like we had free market capitalism?
Let the asshats go bankrupt.
And I know it's just a fantasy on my part, but I'm picturing us taxpayers marching into those mansions in Grosse Pointe and Bloomfield Hills, throwing out the jerks who ran these companies into the ground, putting the houses on the market, and having a garage sale of these mismanagment types' cars and worldly goods.
Let their wives worriedly clip coupons and call the gas company to beg for "just a little more time," and let their kids get taken out of preschool like my neighbor's daughter was after her husband lost his job.
Maybe GM is "too big to fail." But for damn sure, NONE of its top managers and directors is too big to be fired! A condition of receipt of the government money should be that these "best and brightest" hit the bricks. Give someone else a chance to screw the pooch, eh?
Jay R at March 5, 2009 7:20 AM
No. Let them go bankrupt and make their retirees go on medicare like everyone else.
Does it suck? Yep. But why should the taxpayers be asked to pay for one labor union's retired members to have platinum-plated gold health insurance when everyone else's retirees get dorked in the squeakhole?
That's the only way GM will ever return to profitability. They have to tell the UAW to fuck off and die.
brian at March 5, 2009 7:45 AM
The "too big to fail" mantra is simply absurd. Supply needs to come down with demand. What are we going to do ... subsidize GM and its suppliers to produce cars that consumers aren't buying right now? If GM has a viable business (based on real current demand), then it needs to file for Chapter 11, restructure, and come out the other side ready to sell cars (with a complete cleansing of management and the union of course).
Charles at March 5, 2009 7:48 AM
Kaus has some interesting data points.
Crid [cridcridatgmail] at March 5, 2009 8:56 AM
Just a gentle reminder here that GM isn't holding its tin cup out for American taxpayers alone. They already got over $ 3 billion from Canadian taxpayers last December, and now they're demanding $ 7.5 billion more from the federal & provincial (Ontario) governments. What do we get in return? Well, GM has stated it will cur its Canadian workforce from 20,000 down to 7,000 by 2010, so we're expected to reward them with $ 800,000 of our taxes for every job that they intend to take out of the country permanently.
I don't think that's the sort of thing Adam Smith had in mind.
Martin at March 5, 2009 9:27 AM
Oops, "cut" its Canadian workforce...
Martin at March 5, 2009 9:29 AM
They'll be back in 3 months asking for more.
Basically what we've done is create an extraordinary class of welfare recipients paid for by normal folks. GM cannot survive absent concessions the UAW will not make. Bankrupcy is the only answer.
I don't blame anyone for wanting to keep what they already have. When things are unsustainable, they end. Lavish executive pay and extraordinary levels of benefits and pay for the UAW were great while they lasted.
MarkD at March 5, 2009 11:58 AM
Bailouts are theft, plain and simple. Ayn Rand had it right to call these people "looters".
DavidJ at March 5, 2009 1:41 PM
You can put those mansions in Grosse Pointe and Bloomfield Hills on the market, but good luck actually selling them. :-)
I agree with Jay R. that bailing out the companies should NOT include bailing out the incompetent execs running them. And I want the bailout to include payback as well...so it's a loan or an investment, not a gift. Maybe we can use their repayments to pay down some national debt.
Sara at March 9, 2009 3:42 PM
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