First, it's a loan, not a gift. A loan, not a gift. A loan, not a gift. I repeat myself because people keep saying 'bailout' which is BS. A bailout is a gift. This is a loan. Repeat - this is a loan. One more time: this is a loan.
Second, this should not be a surprise. The amount requested previously was clearly stated as just the operating capital that was needed to get through the end of 2008. It did that. No one said that was the entire request, and no more would be requested after that. If you're surprised by the new request, you have not been paying attention.
Third, when the US car manufacturers go bankrupt, so do their suppliers - many already have. And they do not just supply to the US car industry, they supply to all the foreign car manufacturers that make cars in the US as well. US unemployment figures are bad - in Michigan they're much, much, worse. When that trickles out into the rest of the rust-belt that produces car parts and then companies that supply raw materials to car parts manufacturers, etc, you'll be looking at nationwide doubling of unemployment figures. We have been saying we're nowhere near Great Depression-level unemployment figures - this would put us not too far from those numbers.
Fourth, as you might have noticed. Toyota, which was previously not as affected as GM, Ford, or Chrysler, is also going to do layoffs and is now losing money too. Car sales are down. Chrysler workers won't be going to work for Toyota - Toyota is laying off, too. Did all the fired Kodak workers go to work for Fuji?
Fifth, the other governments around the world are either already or getting ready to support their sagging automotive industries as well. Japan has done it for years, when they were introducing cars to the US to compete with our vehicles. We Americans have typically let other governments prop up and support their industry to compete against our industry, in our country, while providing no such support for our industry - hardly fair and clearly biased towards foreign governments. We hate our own manufacturing base, and we punish them every chance we get by handicapping the race against them. Now they're on the ropes and we're deliriously happy. What is that about?
And finally, how large is that Stimulus Package? And what percentage of that goes to car manufacturers? It's all a gift - not a loan - from the American taxpayer to whomever. And for what? To create jobs, ostensibly.
And that's a good thing, right, while a loan - at interest - to a segment of the market that keeps a huge portion of the population employed is a bad thing?
Right. We love us a nice give-away to create jobs, but we hate us a much smaller loan package to keep jobs. That makes sense. Oh, no, wait, I mean it makes no sense at all.
We will pony up 700 billion for banks who got us into this mess, and all we do when we find out they ordered up a bunch of new executive jets and paid billions in bonuses is say how naughty they are and cough up some more money for them. But let the automotive industry - which may have gotten itself in trouble, but certainly did not, oh I dunno, SINK THE FREAKING ECONOMY ride to Washington in a private jet and oh dear lord it's the freaking Apocalypse.
We bail out the criminals who did this too us, and refuse to help the industry that, while they did not do well, at least did not do this to us, and whose jobs could keep us from doubling our current unemployment percentage.
Yeah, that's some smart thinking, that there.
