Sometimes (I'd argue often times), doing nothing is better than fucking something up worse. GM's problems were many, not the least of which were unions, which led to them exporting many manufacturing jobs overseas, and just flat out making bad cars. Their trucks are pretty good, but their cars were shite. Let them Fail! Instead, the gubment takes them over and the taxpayers foot the bill. Same ol' Democratic answer to everything right?:dunno:
I don't like drug dealers. I don't approve of the way that they prey on people's weaknesses to enrich themselves, while at the same time destroying society. But if I lived in an apartment building and there was a drug dealer in the apartment below me, if his apartment caught on fire, I would
not be in favor of letting the fire burn. True, his ass would go up in flames... but so would I and many of the (innocent) people around him. Philosophically, it might be the right thing to do. But in practical, real world terms... it would not be the right thing to do.
Had GM (and Chrysler) truly failed and gone into Chapter 7, which as I've detailed on here before, was the only other option, Ford, Nissan, Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, Kia and any other major OEM in the U.S. would have been forced to halt production within days. The reason for that is any supplier which was tied to GM in any major way would have been put out of business once the Chapter 7 was declared. Until the liquidation sale takes place, NO more invoices are paid. And the banks had already stopped giving any sort of meaningful asset based credit to auto suppliers.
All it takes is for one nut, one bolt, one bracket or one gasket to not be on the line and auto production essentially stops. For a box or two of parts, they MIGHT continue to build and then park them in the yard. But if the parts are not in the supply chain... production stops.
Philosophically, we could have let GM declare Chapter 7. And by now, I'd say the unemployment rate would still be somewhere around 20%. And if the government decided to maintain a completely "hands-off" attitude during that time, we'd now be making the 1930's look like a kids birthday party.
Lastly, whether you look at Consumer Reports or J.D. Power, the quality of GM's trucks
and cars has been rising for many years. I'm about as far from a friend of the UAW as you will find, but it is simply a fact that not a single design engineer, buyer or factory planner is a member of the UAW. So even if the cars were shit, was it because of the design, the assembly process, material choices, vendor choices or some combination of those variables? The UAW is a shitty union to deal with - no argument from me! But to have a valid, ratified contract, it takes the signatures (agreement) of both the union...
and management. Hint: Ford did not bankruptcy... yet they're doing better than GM (and Chrysler) right now. IMO, the people who had been managing GM would have failed at selling ice cream for a penny a cone to rich kids on a hot summer day. You simply cannot fix stupid.
Anyway, it's currently working out pretty well for GM, the government, the taxpayers and most of the (non-union) employees of the suppliers who would have otherwise been shit-canned. So :clap:
As for Cheney, Satan is paging you. Your table in Hell is ready. Have another heart attack and die already.
