Uh WTF
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6249117.stm
I wonder when GM and Chrysler are going go crying to Uncle Sam to save their collective asses. Oh wait Chrysler is now owned by Mercedes so it wouldn't be right to bail them out. Fist in the air in the land of hipocrisy!
posted by Ben Ferreira at 2:32 PM
10 Comments:
GM laid off thousands last year. Maybe if American car manufacturers would start paying attention to customer service and longevity they would stay in business.
This type of subsidy is just masking an inefficiency.
1/10/2007 8:43 PM
Was that a quote from "Rage Against the Machine"?
1/10/2007 9:27 PM
Yes it is a quote from Rage! I'm glad you picked up on that.
It really irritates me when a capitalist country uses tax payer dollars to bail out an inept corporation. It's one thing if the corporation was providing a common good or dire need (emergency services, a utility, etc.) but an automobile manufacturer?! come on.
1/10/2007 9:35 PM
q for y'all
found me another duodock. it runs. ON BATTERIES! yup, holds a 2 hour charge. anyway, I have no mac, so any idea on how to get say, a txt file off of the machine? it just has a modem and mac serial port. i have no cables for it.
yup, it has bolo too.
1/11/2007 3:00 AM
I kind of feel like this situation is a catch 22. While I don't support governments bailing out poorly run companies, I also don't think it's fair to lay off many thousands of workers just because a stuipd company can't make a decent product.
1/11/2007 8:06 AM
Haha, now's whose dumb? I misspelled 'stupid'. ;)
1/11/2007 8:07 AM
@ Marissa : I've been there.
@ Topic : The swift company up here in Greeley just had an ICE raid and 300 employees lost there jobs. That has a tremendious effect on the local economy. That and the company personally lost 30million; but that isn't my point. I think that it is in the cities best interest to keep the jobs, even if that means paying out millions to the american car dealerships.
@ Joel : Man I dunno about that. I suspose you could use dial up to transfer it off. Other than that you need the docking station.
1/11/2007 8:50 AM
Joel: If I had a modem for my Mac we could hook the two together and apple talk it up. Although I don't know if OS X even supports Apple Talk anymore.
Jess: I agree that it can have a serious effect on the local economy if a large employer closes local offices, plants, etc. And it is in the city's best interest to try to keep the company there. However how do you draw the line between which companies you bail out and which you allow to leave? Tens of thousands of small and large businesses close all around the country each year and sadly people are forced to relocate for work. It's an unfortunate side effect of a free market economy but a necessary one.
Perhaps I'm being a hard ass but I don't think its fair for the government to assist a sinking company when others are allowed to drop, except for a few exceptions I mentioned earlier. If Ford closes plants due to customers not buying their products, competitors will open more plants to meet demand (it just may be in Tennessee or Louisiana instead of Michigan).
It's not like Michigan has a surplus of cash lying around to fund this endeavor. Schools, emergency services, and government services are feeling the pinch up there due to budget cuts. If the population decreases due to plant closures the tax revenue will decrease but so will the operational costs. The free market (for the most part) should balance itself.
*I'm waiting for Master Murtaugh to come lay the smack down on my econ argument...unless of course he agrees :)
1/11/2007 10:06 AM
I don't think Gabe will be joining us in this conversation; I bet he is in travel mode.
It does seem shitty that a huge company is getting help just because they are doing bad. I bet the government considered this before giving them the money.
Another thing just to think about, Ford is an American insitution and if Ford were to start closing plants I wonder what that would do to the moral of the country. Would people (general public, riot mentaility) see it as the economy is turning? Could something like Ford closing one plant be a sign to morons (general public) that the US economy is in trouble?
Not really a strong point but something to point out.
Also, it would be really great if you could save Michelle & I a bed tonight, If you can, Thanks!
1/11/2007 2:37 PM
Shit I missed the whole thing.... This was all posted when I was having trouble accessing the blog. oops, but everything seems to be working fine now.
When the factories close the wastelands they leave behind, and not to mention the soaring unemployment, it is truly terrible. There needs to be something in place to help the unemployed people find new jobs. What the government does right now is gives these workers pay for a couple of weeks, sometimes a lump sum, and then eventually cuts them off. There is very little in the lines of new job training or job relocation programs in place. Besides that there are really aren’t any new jobs to be had. These employees are high end blue collar workers who have worked in manufacturing their entire lives. Typically they are also reluctant to move, as they have lived in the same place for most, if not all, of their lives. If there are any new plant openings, especially in the south, they are taken by the locals, which does help their economy. However, a common occurrence now is to move plants from southern states into Mexico, where US citizens have no hope of getting the jobs. Of course the politicians and the consumers often foster this behavior as it leads to lower prices (making it harder for US firms to compete) and better foreign relations.
1/20/2007 7:35 AM
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