Detroit's bailout: A taxpayer's nightmare

re: Detroit's bailout: A taxpayer's nightmare

Misty — Sun, 31 May 2009 13:41:56 GMT

you know i got an email that may have almost been true.

This is from an article in the St. Petersburg Times Newspaper on

Sunday. The Business Section asked readers for ideas on "How Would

You Fix the Economy?"

I think this guy nailed it!

Dear Mr. President:

Please find below my suggestion for fixing America's

economy.

Instead of giving billions of dollars to companies that will

squander the money on lavish parties and unearned

bonuses, use the following plan.

You can call it the Patriotic Retirement Plan:

There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work

force.

Pay them $1 million apiece severance for early retirement

with the Following stipulations:

1) They MUST retire.

Forty million job openings - Unemployment fixed.

2) They MUST buy a new American CAR.

Forty million cars ordered - Auto Industry fixed.

3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off

their mortgage - Housing Crisis fixed.

It can't get any easier than that!

If more money is needed, have all members

of Congress and their constituents pay their taxes...

think about it we recieved our money we could make the choice that is needed. Not one man and his puppets.

re: Detroit's bailout: A taxpayer's nightmare

vernbayliss@hotmail.com — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 06:02:24 GMT

Free enterprise and small bisuness are the bacis of our ecoimic structhure. We need to have faith in the people and allow them to survive without all the supervision of the government.

re: Detroit's bailout: A taxpayer's nightmare

GVK — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 23:11:03 GMT

A few comments:

Remember the crappy cars in the 70s - the ones with door handles that rusted off in a few years? It took foreign imports to get the Big Three to produce cars of acceptable quality. Restrictions on imports and cars made in the USA by foreign companies are necessary for competition, quality and technological improvement.

Economics 101 - If ANY business in a free enterprise system pays wages well above what the market will bear, it WILL go under unless its costs in some other area are well below industry standards and can be sustained (e.g., one of the Big Three now has up its sleeve a full-size car for $15,000 that runs on tap water).

I don't begrudge anyone a FAIR WAGE (one that is market-based and conmensurate with knowledge/skills and annual goal achievement), but the current system of public sector/higher education/union jobs getting far more of the fair share, and the private sector far less, is not working for our country and pitting Americans against Americans.

Why do we want to save the Big Three anyhow? Remember Tucker...and the guy who invented the intermittent wiper... The Big Three are corrupt and unethical. They certainly don't use the Japanese pricing model...pick a price point for the model, then push to include as many features as possible...and improve on that the following model year. Big Three pricing philosophy is "Charge as much as possible, put in as little value as possible and sell add-on options".

The bailout is a bandaid without wage reductions similar to those paid

re: Detroit's bailout: A taxpayer's nightmare

uaw retiree — Fri, 26 Dec 2008 16:08:46 GMT

A short story.

One night a friend was at the same place I was and bragging about his new Toyata truck. Another friend told him he should have bought USA, his statement was (my job can't go overseas) two weeks later I saw him working at a minimum wage job. Guess what? His job went overseas.

Moral of the story Buy American. The job you save may be yours.

I am a UAW Retired worker and I buy USA or Canada made cars. The reason I will buy Canada's is because their wage structure is similar to our unless some of the other countries. I check and make sure it is made in one of these two places.

re: Detroit's bailout: A taxpayer's nightmare

jdh — Thu, 25 Dec 2008 04:03:37 GMT

Ive been reading the posts on here . And what everyone is forgetting is that the average joe is broke,unemployed or strap to tight. Doesnt matter if we bail out the BIG 3 no one has the money to buy there cars anyway. Are government is looking at this the wrong way. An example of what there doing (If you have a two story house and it is sinking you sure the hell dont go out and build a third story on it do you). If you dont load the money on the bottom and quite top loading we ll all sink. And also quite out sourcing or jobs to other countys . We are a nation of consumers not builders and the crap has caught up to us. No good jobs to buy the stuff we still make here greed has bit us in the butt. 85 ,38 ,34 million is anybody worth that kind of money in a year when there business is tanking . They should go to jail for impersonating an a CEO. But only in america can you bankrupt a company and come out smelling like a rose and have other idiots from other companys throwing money at you like your a genius and wanting to hire you. That one is for you wall street people and AIG. Oh ya thanks SEC for bernard madoff guess you spent to much time on happy hours and forgot what you were getting payed for or maybe uncle sam didnt have the sharps knifes in the drarw on that one now did they. So *** if you want to but the reality is that it will be business as always and nothing will change we the little people will be shouldering the response ability of the tab.

re: Detroit's bailout: A taxpayer's nightmare

4REEE — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 20:40:27 GMT

Bailout, stop the Unions, blame the SEC, blame the government, blame the auto workers... When will the finger pointing stop?! It's our OWN fault!!!

There's no way out of this mess except through the following promises by God in 2Chron 7:14; "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." ------ If we do those 4 things, then God will do those 3 things for us. And Item #3, "healing our land" sounds pretty darn good right about now!!!!

re: Detroit's bailout: A taxpayer's nightmare

Denny — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 11:56:53 GMT

Why is it that the Unions have destroyed the big three?

Having been a life long GM owner, my most recent purcase was a Toyota. Why?

Better quality (and has been for decades), more attractive vehicle. The factory workers do not design the cars.

I would bet the author of this article has a BMW? Volvo? Honda? Mazda? Probably did not buy GM either. Thats the problem. Somebody said, lipstick on a pig is still a pig. Bad cars don't make for customers. One example of the fine line of GM cars the 1980's Chev Celebrity, Olds Ciena, Buick Regal, Pontiac Grand AM? .Same piece of crap car under four different car lines. Ever seen the paint on these beauty's. Quit blaming rank and file for sh*ty car design and idea's.

People are not going to buy junk anymore, heck the koreans are sending us that with 10 year 100000 mile warranties.

re: Detroit's bailout: A taxpayer's nightmare

Bear — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:17:32 GMT

Experts here, experts there.... some say this, some say that...

I'm still looking for the answer as to where it is the Fed Govt's place to "bail out" a business with TAX PAYER money? Where is it in the constitution that my money should be used to bailout some union extorted business? It's total crap.

Yeah yeah... same same for the banking system and blah blah blah. OUR Govt is out of control. The whole Congress should be charged with crimes against the Constitution.. merely for calling themselves "Congressmen"

re: Detroit's bailout: A taxpayer's nightmare

Bear — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:12:40 GMT

Ain't life a ***?

re: Detroit's bailout: A taxpayer's nightmare

Daniel Webster — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 19:06:53 GMT

It is a pleasure to read a story written by someone as brilliant as you. I have no doubt that you know a lot more about this than the president of the United States and his adviser.

In case you haven't noticed Toyota will report its first losing quarter since 1941. Is that because of their failed business plan? Of course not, it's because of this recession we are currently in.

There are many American car dealerships struggling to make it in this economy now. Not because of General Motors failed business plan, but because of the economy. If you put General Motors in bankruptcy sales will plummet even further forcing these dealerships out of business causing the loss of many jobs. When these dealerships close, the local parts houses that sell them parts every day on a local level will also fail. Causing the loss of more jobs. And on and on and on.

Thank God there are people out there with a better idea of the true picture than the one you have!