Posted by
Patrick "Sarge" Murray on Wednesday, November 19, 2008 4:00:00 PM
More hogs are lining up at the trough in the wake of the Wall Street bailout. The pigs that now hope to get fed are none other than Detroit’s “Big Three.” I love GM cars; I’ve been a dyed-in-the-wool GM man my whole life. But I and many others have pointed out that GM, along with Ford or Chrysler, have structural deficiencies that make them non-competitive with Japanese and other foreign makes. Bailing out the Big Three with government money will do nothing to solve these deficiencies, but rather allow for them to continue until the next time these corporations end up running out of money. Nothing will be done to solve untenable union labor contracts, nothing will be done to do away with paying pensions to those who no longer work there, and bailing out the Detroit automakers will do nothing about the problem of paying all employees’ healthcare costs. The foreign makes are not saddled with these burdens.
I love GM cars, as I’ve already mentioned (I drive a 2008 Buick LaCrosse, and have driven Chevys and Cadillacs before then). But these days, GM seems more like a company that exists to give benefits to its employees and makes cars on the side, as opposed to the other way around. But don’t take my word for it. Mitt Romney basically says the same thing in an op-ed piece in the NY Times. Why did so many of us support Mitt’s candidacy back during the primary season? He knows how to turn things around. Some ideas for a Big Three turnaround are thus shared in this piece, and they don’t involve the government further funding their crippling deficiencies with taxpayer dollars.