Rumors In the Car Business

[glockmail]

OK, force unions out, but only if you make it law that no officer of any company recieves more than 20 times what the lowest paid employee, permanent or temporary, gets paid. This bullshit of blaming the working man for the errors of the CEOs is getting old and stinky. It was not the man on the floor that decided that Americans did not want a real hybrid. It was not the man on the factory floor that decided after some very successful test runs with the public, that they would not produce and electric car.

The decisions that have taken the American Auto industry down were made at the top by some very incompetant people. The very same people that get golden parachutes worth tens of millions, while that man on the factory floor gets a few months of unemployment insurance, a foreclosed home, and no health care.

The best thing we could do for the American Auto industry is fire everyone from midmanagement up. Out on the street, no parachutes, no severance pay. Incompetance is its own reward. Time for real change.

I see that you can't keep up with the numbered issues so you went on the standard liberal rant instead. Blame "the man" for it all. Too bad it has no basis in logic.

 

[WhiteLion]

honey the US car industry failed a long time ago,, shoddy overpriced fall apart products sank them.. it's no ones fault but their own.

Nah couldnt compete with the compact jap cars fast enough during the gas crunch in the early 1970s and never caught back up with the exception of FORD and they are lagging now as well(F150 and Mustang are Fords only lasting salvations)...They were undermined by our government regs and OPEC

 

[matty]

I think in the coming weeks and months, the definition of capitalism will need to be redefined. The government will not let the U.S. car industry fail.

Where ya' been the last decade?..

Oh, that's right, buried in Obama-fluff.

 

[Navy1960]

After careful consideration on this matter,I still believe that Chapter 11 is the best alternative to providing an additional avenue of funding to the Big 3, rather than allowing additional funding, that will eventually be consumed by Union pension funds and healthcare. This money will not do one thing to make any of the American car companies more competitive in the market place and is in the end a bandaid on a huge wound that won't stop bleeding. This requires a radical approach and that approach is Chapter 11 which will allow the companies to renogitate with the Unions and also allow a Trustee to force them to shed losing and unprofitable divisions. What will emerge from this is a leaner and healther American car industry and one that can compete on a global scale.

Short of Chapter 11 , then the only other viable solution would be to allow immediate access to the 25 billion that has already been approved by congress. However if this is done, IMO the companies should immediatly require senior management to resign and further require a 15% across the board pay cut from all the employee's at the big three in exchange for job security. What also should be required is these funds be used as loans and not free money and should be paid back with interest. Additionally the big three should agree to scale its product lines, raise CAFE standards, and agree to a timeline for introduction of new technology vehicles.

While it's very clear that there is not enough votes in the current session to allow the big 3 access to the 700 billion that is a mess in itself and should NEVER have been authorized, there does seem to be enough votes for the alternative of allowing access to the already approved money.