If the Government bails out our auto industry won't

[doc03]

that open up unfair trade practice claims by our trading partners with the WTO and a trade war. They filed unfair trading charges against the US when Bush put quotas on steel imports forcing Bush to back down on many steel products.

[DJ13]

1. Preventing banckruptcy isnt the same thing as providing a competitive advantage

I dont believe they would even think about interfering, as several automakers around the world will probably need assistance themselves before long.

[doc03]

2. Preventing bankruptcy would be propping up a

uncompetitive industry with government funds, I believe that is a no no with the WTO. That is the argument American industries such as steel has been making against some of our foreign competitors. The Asian countries and former Soviet states have subsidized their steel industry for years and then dump their products on us below cost of production and we have won unfair trade practice cases many times with the WTO.

[Historic NY]

3. I rather see the money go to keeping the industry viable..than give

it to the parties on Wall St. I don't think they want a free ride I think they want a chance to get it right. GM has world wide plants but its important they get on the cutting edge and any loan should make that a condition.

[doc03]

4. It was done back in the 70s, the industry kept producing

land yachts when gas prices went through the roof and the Japanese ate their lunch back then. They were bailed out so they could retool and produce smaller cars to compete with the Japanese, now here we are all over again. One thing for sure they have to force them to do what the bailout was intended to do or they will squander it again. Another thing that needs to be done is the UAW needs to wake up and smell the coffee, if they don't change their ways they will have no employer to work for.

[doc03]

5. If a bailout doesn't come soon I look for the

PBGC to come in and seize their pension assets and freeze all pensions in place. It's been done before, they did that with several steel companies including my employer..

[kurt_cagle]

6. Perhaps it is time for the automobile industry to die

This may seem harsh, but I have to wonder if we have reached a point where the only way to "save" the automobile industry is to let the industry fail. These companies have too much invested in the status quo to be truly innovative, many have become little more than importers of components from China and Korea that then assemble these into "Made in USA" cars, and for the most part have only stayed in business by becoming financing companies that happened to use vehicles as collateral.

Liquidate the auto industry. Let those with money by up the profitable pieces and use them to create new factories focused on newer technologies and with newer mandates. The talented engineers, machinists and managers will find work elsewhere - indeed, maybe they'll start up their own car companies. GM and Ford are both hyperconglomerates as it stands, made up of the collective corpses of other automotive companies that were gobbled up to prevent competition ... I suspect that the next stage of American (and perhaps global) capitalism will be the great disintegration, as all of these conglomerates shed pieces of themselves to create fleeter, more agile companies.

It also raises the question of whether industry should become responsible for pensions and retirement. Seems to me that most of these companies set up pension plans only to take advantage of the money that it would bring in, and now that they are actually having to pay out those pension plans, they're filing for bankruptcy because the money is already gone.