The Big Three

I came across this interesting article that I had to share with you dear readers. The first question in this article sparked this rant, “Does the auto industry deserve a bailout? “ No, why should they? The auto industry saw the change in the market to smaller more economical cars, the hybrids, electric, hell even the pipe dream that is E85 were all there. Japan and Germany were making these cars long before the “Big three” had even brought it up to the American consumer. They instead continued to make the big SUV’s, trucks, the non fuel efficient car. While oil prices continued to skyrocket, they did nothing. While the hybrid cars were selling before they could be put on the lot, they did nothing. Well that’s not true they introduced a few alternative fueled cars and still others with better mileage but it was too little too late.

What drives me even crazier is how our tax dollars seems to be the answer to the debilitating economic crisis that is our current condition. Once again it’s the “throw money at the problem and hope it goes away” method. What happened to personal reasonability? What happened to “owning ones mistakes”? As stated in the article we the taxpayers “should definitely not be on the hook to bail out companies that have made terrible decisions time and again.” As in the paragraph above the Big Three have made these horrible decisions with their product time and again. There were so many times in the last few years alone where they could have made a positive business decision and pushed the hybrid car out sooner yes it would have cost more than the traditional car and some consumers would have bought the cheaper car but as with everything the longer the product is out there the cheaper it gets the more profit the maker of that product gets, and then guess what….more money for everyone, because we the consumer are not trying to figure out if our kid should eat this week or the electricity gets paid, or if we can put enough gas into the car to get to work! What makes this even worse is how the auto industry has treated it labor unions. Now don’t get me wrong I believe that a union is necessity for many industries. The auto industry being one of them, they provide a much needed check and balance system, but at the same time some unions, or rather some people in the unions, put such a lean on the industry that it makes it harder to make a profit, and let’s face it we are in business to make a profit. Confused? Let me simplify for you, GM has a rule that it can’t layoff a worker, well they can, but not really. You see when you get laid off from GM you can still get ninety percent of your pay check till the end of your contract. How may I ask did this pass into a rule? A labor union. Now I’m all for not getting laid off without just cause but this is kind of strange don’t you think? Paying people not to work, wow.

What should we do for the auto industry? Well my first thought is to allow them to file bankrupt, let them cut the current contracts with the unions and restructure a more realistic business model before they start talking to the unions for labor contracts this time with more again realistic models for the contracts. What happens when the government gives them money? It will delay the inevitable with bad business models and these crazy contracts with the labor unions it is just a matter of time before we are handing more money to them…..But what do I know.