Is the bankruptcy of many large corporations a good thing?

[Skidmore]

I mean if they really tank big time. Like the automobile industry probably will. Doesn't it create a whole bunch of wide open space in market for smaller, potentially more ethical companies to come into being, or do the spoils just go to bigger hogs?

[Extend a Hand]

1. taxpayers

will end up with crippling debts just to bail out the pension funds.

[skids]

2. An entire industry would have to collapse for stimulus.

A few companies collapsing just gives their competitors more control over the market. Perhaps it gives a midsized corporation an opportunity to expand, but unless an entire industry tanks, there won't be the rampant demand necessary to create an open field for small business.

[meganmonkey]

3. Maybe on a certain level but it will get much worse before it gets better

IMO.

I think that it is important for industry to be sustainable and stable - as far as economics and environment and labor force. It just isn't happening in this 'free market'. So maybe by these companies going under, some new formula of sustainability can emerge. But the devestation to the middle and lower classes will be horrible in the meantime.

:(

[ixion]

4. look for tanking corps to ask taxpayers to save them

just like the airlines. Then, once saved, they turn right back to screwing the same people who just forked over the cash to save them.

Great system, eh? :eyes:

[Tesha]

5. It is both good and bad.

Bad things:

o Lots of people will lose their paychecks, pensions, and/or medical
coverage.

o Lots of folks who hold certain "blue chip" stocks will lose big time.

o These are additional signs of the collapse of the country formerly
known as the United States of America.

o If the feds bail them out, it will distort the marketplace
tremendously.

Good things:

o Corporate dinosaurs *SHOULD* die, giving way to better ideas.

o Republican-contributing (corporate) dinosaurs should especially die.

o (Speaking specifically of US auto manufacturers) anything that shifts
us towards more energy efficiency is, in the long run, a good thing.
(Metaphorically) killing the corporations that invented and
manufacturer SUVs is a *BIG* step in the right direction.

o Perhaps a few of the idiots who habitually vote Republican
against their own best interests will wake up when the crisis
affects them personally.

Tesha

[Nite Owl]

6. Taxpayers will be asked

to bail them out and blame will be assessed to the union workers and the benefit packages. The jobs that could replace them will be WalMart type jobs with no security or healthcare. Management will walk away richer for bringing a company down but the workers will once again get screwed.

[LSK]

7. new companies will replace them, but it takes time

Meanwhile, thousands are out of work and the massively in debt Gov has to brunt the expenses of the pensions. The wealthy execs will get hired elsewhere, and the middle and lower classes will suffer.

Is it safe to assume these corporations fell victim to free trade agreements and rising health care costs?

[TheCowsCameHome]

8. They use it to bust unions and cut retiree benefits.

They play the RW game very well.

[lonestarnot]

12. So just form more damn unions!

[Mystayasin]

9. No it isn't good

The people hurt in this are the long-time employees of these corporations. My guy works for Delta and has been there 27 years. They've already taken pay-cuts and there are more to come, also, the pension he has worked for for almost 3 decades may well be lost forever. At age 51, where will he ever find a job with a comparable payrate or benefits. Basically he won't and everything he has worked hard for all his life will be gone. This is the reality of corporate bankruptcy. The big fish will be fine, the older workers end up becoming part of the working poor, taking menial jobs that hardly pay enough to support themselves, let alone a family.

[newyawker99]

16. Hi Mystayasin!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[holboz]

10. But, but the TAX CUTS are HELPING the economy recover!

I guess this means the Republicans will be advocating even DEEPER cuts for wealthy citizens and yet even more corporate welfare.

You know what makes me sick? They blame Dems for "throwing money" on social programs which they claim don't work. Well how are their tax cuts any different? In a round about way they're throwing money away but not collecting something from the windfalls of oil companies who have enjoyed astronomical profits this year.

Sorry - my point may be a bit all over the place but the mentality of Rethugs tends to confuse me anyway.

:crazy:

[Skidmore]

11. Do you all suppose that we should point out to the

free marketeers that their markets are not free? If corporations were allowed to bite the dust when they fail and are not continually propped up through bail outs or mergers, then perhaps there would be incentives for management to be more prudent with the resources they are allowed to handle. It may also bring about more smaller businesses which can address local needs as well.

[Neil Lisst]

13. It's always the little guys who hurt the most ....

When a big company fails, the little guys get hurt the most.

Employees are out of work, no income, and often little or no ability to access funds or assets that may be intertwined with the corporations, as in the Enron situation.

All the little businesses who did business with the big company go under. Their employees lose their work. It's like a tornado, sucking up jobs, money, and assets, that disappear.

If the company has a pension plan, that may fail, and be taken over by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp, which does for pensions what the FDIC does for banks and bank depositors.

Bottom line is we all pay for it, as lost jobs cause social costs to increase and revenues to govt. to drop.

These bankruptcies are the leading edge of a recession that will cause many similar business failures. Put your seatbelt on. The ride is about to get very bumpy.



-------
today I shout out to posters at DU
http://www.webcomicsnation.com/neillisst/

[Skidmore]

15. Bottom line is where is the will for the little guy to suck it

up and pool their resources to fill the vacuum left by the big corporation. You can't tell me that with all these millions of people in this nation, enough small investors couldn't pool resources to operate local or regional businesses that would support their communities. Why do we assume that only the big guy can do it? Sometimes it may just mean contributing sweat equity.

[tsuki]

14. Won't help. We are no longer a capitalist system. We are a

Corporate Socialist System. We have so many major corporations on welfare that their is no capitalist system.