No one despises the present day management of the US Auto Industry more than I do. I am presently engaged in a running battle with them, refusing to pay one penny more for a new car; not one penny more than a supplier or a person who has a relative who works for GM or Ford or Chrysler.
Four years ago, I picked up a mid-summer's weekend Detroit News and read about all the wonderful SUVs. I thought to myself, "They will not be happy when the price of oil goes skyrocketing again...as it did in the 1970s." Even though many in management and on the boards had lived through the 1970s, it seemed as if they had no memory of them, collective memory or individual, and acted as if bigger was better, since (1) SUVs were not subject to CAFE standards , as were standard autos, and (3) SUVs contained more profit per unit.
Just months before Hurricane Katrina, we had a Ford salesman expostulate at us, "You're the first people to ask about fuel economy in 5 years!" And so on. So my contempt for the Auto industry and their enablers, the American people who drove and demanded the SUVs - best exemplified by that evolutionary dead-end: the Hummer Owner - is very deep. HOWEVER, Money to the Auto Industry is money to an industry which creates a product which we use, not to scheming bankers. University Types may blather all they wish about letting free markets have their way. This exemplifies the stupidity of the smart and educated: they think they have found eternal truth.
Free markets are idiots! They are no smarter than the people participating in them and running them. It is Free Men and Women that are the "invisible hands" which determine the Course and History of Nations. Markets are the faithful servants of a free society, not their rulers. Allowing some half-baked economic theory ... and note here that I consider most present day economic theory to be "half-baked", and mainly because it derives from a society that has pushed the Divine aside; in doing so, that society has doomed itself to wander for eternity, searching and never finding, a Flying Dutchman without a port... to determine the fate of nations is to abdicate our responsibility.
Free Markets that no longer function as the servants of mankind become idolatrous Molochs, which will destroy us and our children. If the Auto Industry fails - and recall that the Auto Industry was for years the paradigm of the US economy - the entire Auto Sector goes down the tube for an indeterminate period of time. Unemployment will be in double digit figure within 3 months. The recession will become a black hole. This will surpass the Great Depression. All this may be just; it may be right; it may be what the Auto Industry deserves, and it may be what academic notions of "free markets" ( curiously insulated from the lives and sufferings of the common folk) call for, BUT I suspect very much that we shall have no stomach for the despair we shall undoubtedly witness. Ask yourself, how long can I endure to wander in the wasteland...east of Eden?
I know this partly because of the Irony I spoke of; the reversal of fortunes where the mighty are cast down from their thrones. The absolute rapidity of the destruction of the so-called American Empire ( as Karl Rove called it ) points to a long time and very deep and systemic rottenness at the core of modern American society.
The Irony of the Reversal from Neoconservative preening upon the stage of history to being thrown into the dumpster is so absolute and so clear and so quickly done, that it not only takes one's breath away, it gives one pause and wonder about God's scenario for all this. Secretary Rice comes back from the Middle East with no peace. Of course she does. Did anyone expect anything else? The condemned are not allowed to be redeemed....yet. The Tzionistische Medina of right-wing Israel drives old people from their dwellings: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7729487.stm
This is the true face of the right-wing ally of right-wing America. ...and the right-wing justifies it by : "God gave the land to the Jewish people. Full stop." But, this is not verifiable as truth, for even Jews themselves may say that Israel cannot be established before the coming of the Messiah. It is not the present truth. It is a wandering desire from the past. This world is ruled by phantasms. Economic theories parading as eternal Truth, old tales from a history long ago, arrogant attitudes, and total disregard for the Divine. Do not do your Auto bailout. Let your Society be destroyed. It certainly deserves it. Just hang on a bit longer to complete your role as enabler and accomplice..... Earn your horns as spirits of Infinite Negation.
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It looks like the folks in DC are hell-bent to give the stimulus package another try seeing as the first one didn't have any real effect. This time it's the car industry.
While I question the sanity of blowing cash around and running the national debt up even further; it seems inevitable - so this time let's target unemployment, create AMERICAN jobs and pump up the economy all at one time.
Consider the following:
Manufacturing costs of motor vehicles are 65% labor (ie: W-2 income), that's not all direct but due to suppliers. GM alone has over 1300 suppliers. (That's a lot of jobs!)
1 in 10 Americans makes all or part of their income due to the automobile industry.
Money turns over 5 times in a year.
Thus a vehicle with a manufacturing cost of 20K produces 13,500 in W-2 income which in turn becomes a total of 65K in 12 months due to the 5 turnovers.
(This isn't magic, it's simply how the economy works.)
Our domestic car makers are saddled with legacy costs, most of which will reduce dramatically in 2010 due to contract changes. They need to survive to get there.
Here's the solution
Instead of either shipping cases of cash off to car makers; or sending us all another check:
Send out a voucher for say $1,000 good on a motor vehicle for the percentage of the vehicle that's domestic. (Civic = 70% Ford Explorer=80%)
Let those not interested in a new car sell or give away their vouchers (Ebay would be loaded with them in no time flat) and those that are so inclined can use as many as they can get their hands on up to the full MSRP of the vehicle.
This would bail out the car industry without giving them a dime directly
Further it would reduce the overall age of the nations cars which would in turn;
increase overall fuel economy
decrease pollution
Strengthen the dollar!
Since vehicles with a higher domestic content would be moving better this would reduce our imports, strengthening our dollar which would in turn further reduce what we pay for anything imported ...like gas!
Jobs
Instead of simply saving some jobs, this would cause such a run that it would create some.
Pays for itself!
Since money turns over 5 times, and the vouchers are only good for the domestic content of the vehicle, every dime would be spent in the United States creating taxable income.
What is the income tax on 65,000 anyway?
(Remember? 20K manufacturing cost = $13,500 W-2 income x 5 = $65,000)
http://authentic-connecticut-republican.blogspot.com/2008/11/another-stimulus-package.html
I'm sure you'll agree that this makes more sense than simply sending out checks; many of which will be used to buy new flat screen TV's usually made in Malaysia or some such place.
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