Sir,
The big-three United States automakers are begging for help. Polls I have seen show that perhaps 70% of all Americans are opposed to another bailout. You, like Solomon, are faced with a difficult choice. I cannot presume -- nor would I want -- to make that choice for you.
But, whatever you decide -- for the sake of the autoworkers, and all downstream -- please do it quickly. Every second of time to plan and prepare you give them can only save lives -- no matter the end game. The world will not wait for your inauguration. You must walk a razor's edge but lives are at stake, sir. And from the extent to which I have seen you age since election night, you will be as white as Moses when you leave your post.
Please listen to us,
MCR
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6 comments:
Please listen to us,
- Detroit, and the Michigan economy.
I've mentioned it before on this blog, but in light of this recent post and the ongoing 'drama' if you will regarding the state of the Big 3...the repercussions of what's coming will be devastating. Chrysler folding into GM, and the (pray it doesn't happen) failure of Ford would cause fallout in Detroit, and most of Southeast Michigan on a scale difficult to imagine. Driving through the greater Detroit area, one almost gets the feeling of the tension in a Western scene, right before the shoot-out, when no one in town knows exactly what's going to happen but everyone's pretty sure its going to be bad...
I second the plea for a decision to be made as quickly as possible. The longer people wait, the less time they have to prepare, and the less resources they'll have with which to do so.
I'm reminded of the quote about the gun on the wall...
Well picking a side here, I say f*ck em. Its a good day to die!
Those companies are relics of the old paradigm anyway. They need to go, like a festering gangrene appendage.
Put the money that would bail them out into civil projects that would directly facilitate a sustainable economy. From incentives for companies that make electric transportation using recycled materials, to rebuilding our rail infrastructure.
They are gonna fall, do you want them to bleed us out first?
As far as making time for those who aren't ready... At what cost? And how many lives could be saved by putting that money towards the new paradigm rather than heaping it onto the burning wreckage of the current?
Hell I'm not even "ready", I never will be! I happen to enjoy video games too much to ever WANT socioeconomic collapse ;) but that doesn't inhibit my ability to see that the car companies have always been doomed, letting them fall quick and by their own means is better than letting them bleed us. Hell, save the money for the unemployment checks that are coming instead of the executive golden parachutes it will otherwise go to.
Just my 2 cents.
This is a hard call. On the one hand, we have a huge mass of workers in danger of losing their jobs and a local economy already in tatters. Something must be done for them.
On the other hand, just handing the auto industry a blank check will only make things worse in the long run. Industrialism is a moribund system, and the auto industry is representative of that.
To save the workers' current jobs will only delay the inevitable implosion. The auto industry needs to be consolidated and greatly downsized if it is to survive. Ideally, the industry would be downsized and the displaced workers would be given some other gainful and meaningful employment. However, my bet is that the problem will be exacerbated by a government attempt to prop up the industry on its current bloated scale.
How about not handing them a blank check, but one with writing on it.....give them a requirement to build cars for a new rail system for this country, give them a requirement to build a certain kind of energy efficient car, et., etc. Only if they spend the money on the requirements will it continue to flow? I grew up in Detroit, and have always had mixed feelings about it, but I'd hate to see the mess there get even worse.
I should clarify my position, as I rather agree with you nbpatton. I am inline with the thinking that suggests putting money into the new paradigm rather than the old. I think our old industrial centers could be re-tooled and put to use producing for the new model of society.
The scenario I fear is help being promised that is sure to be inadequate and only bleed us all out longer. You actually said it quite well: "Put the money that would bail them out into civil projects that would directly facilitate a sustainable economy. From incentives for companies that make electric transportation using recycled materials, to rebuilding our rail infrastructure." add the inland waterways to that and I'm on-board, so to speak. (sorry)
I don't want to see the mess get worse. But we know it's getting worse before it gets better. The quicker the better. Hence I second MCR's plea to make the decisions as soon as possible.
These ballouts have got to stop. nb's on point. Stop the corporape welfare. The auto workers with their strong unions are just as guilty for not putting up a fight to produce vehicles that were cleaner and got better gas milage instead of building SUVs.
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