Wow, another round of bail-outs. I am so glad we have all this money to bailout our largest corporations. Wall Street, Detroit, what's next? Now I know they are planning to take this money from the $700B of the original bailout bill but what are they actually planning to do? The bill is very long but here are the highlights :
-- $25 billion in 10-year low-interest loans, charging 5 percent interest for the first five years and 9 percent for the remainder of the loan terms.
-- Parts-makers as well as the Big Three would be eligible.
-- The money would come from the $700 billion rescue/bailout plan.
-- A prohibition on bonuses for automaker employees making more than $250,000 per year.
-- Fast processing: Eligibility for loans will be determined within 15 days of application.
-- Fast turnaround: The loans would be distributed within seven days of approval.
-- "Clawback" provision: Bonuses can be taken back by the government if executive statements are found to be inaccurate.
-- No golden parachutes of any sort.
-- Companies receiving these loans cannot pay dividends for the duration of the loan.
Do you notice what's missing out of this bill? How about a reliable, marketable car? Something that can compete with the imports? No, there's nothing like that here but what else would we expect from the "Big Three". All three of the US auto makers have been making cars based on a warranty life span. It's been a scam they've been pulling on the American populous for many years. They build a car that will make it just until the warranty is up then small things will start failing. It starts with little things first then progresses to larger things until you're in a no-win situation and decide to buy another vehicle. This process makes sure there's a constant market for cars and a constant demand without the car makers having to make any real progression in fuel economy, technology, or safety. There are two reasons people buy cars; need and desire. Car maker's recognized early on that desire is too unpredictable so they have forced need on us. Hmm, here's a coincidence; factory warranties are three years and the normal car loan is four years. How convenient.
Ok, back to the bailout; back in 1979 the government did bailout Chrysler. I know a lot of you weren't around to remember this event but I do. Do you know what we average citizens got out of that bailout? The K-Car. One of the biggest piece of crap vehicle ever created by Detroit. This line of vehicles was created by Chrysler as a cheap vehicle who's mass sales generated the cash flow to get Chrysler back on it's feet. One aspect of that bailout was the government was supposed to buy their fleet vehicles from Chrysler so what did they buy? That's right, K-cars; which, due to their low quality had to be replaced within a few years. So we gave Chrysler the money they needed, they produced a cheap piece of crap so they could become solvent again, then we all had to buy new cars within a few years. Do you notice a problem with this scenario? It's a repeated fleecing of the American people to fund a failing business model. What is the reason Detroit is in the place their in today? They produce crappy cars that are low quality, over priced, and get poor fuel economy. Wow, it's history repeating itself.
There's a lot of talk about how Chrysler paid back their bailout early and that we actually made money on the deal but in reality did we? If Detroit had really learned their lesson they wouldn't be in the world-of-hurt they are now. We as American need to ask ourselves if we want to go down this road again. Do we want to bailout yet another company just so they can continue to fleece us by providing us crap. When are we going to stand up for ourselves and say NO to this type of treatment? One of the best advice that has come out of all these bailouts is to "not throw good money after bad". The Detroit big three bases their business on bad practices and we should not be supporting them. I'm all for "buy American" but I'm no fool. If buying American means we're wasting money then it's un-American. You know the old adage "fool me once shame on me, fool me twice shame on you"? Well Detroit is trying to make fools out of us again and we all need to say NO. Just say NO Washington, do us all a favor and just say NO!
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