remember: 14 million U.S. jobs are tied to the auto industry.

[Joe Fields]

You and I may not like a proposed bailout, but literally one in every thirty jobs here in the U.S. is auto industry related. Without them, we will definitely see another Great Depression. Hell, we may see another one anyway. This is strictly a jobs issue.

The GOP needs to put up or shut up. Either they are for jobs, or they are just for Wall Street.

[Auggie]

1. How many retired autoworkers are out there living on auto industry pensions?

[az chela]

4. The retired workers worked hard for those pensions and

a lot of them had to take buy outs

[az chela]

2. If the auto industry goes down that it the end of this country

[glowing]

3. so, just pay people to sit around. If they aren't producing anything worth buying

and everyone's broke, who's going to buy cars in the first place. There is going to have be a huge tax incentive to undo the horrible return value on the monsters that are flooded throughout the market.

[az chela]

5. they need to get rid of those high paid ceo's and get the

shops making cars that can compete with honda and toyota and what ever other cars they can match

[monktonman]

6. so thats it huh

pay me to just fucking sit around????
HOW DARE YOU
I dont design these shitty cars.

I work my ass off every fucking night
to bring these crummy cars to the car buying public
dont you ever tell me I just "sit around".

what do you do?

[4 t 4]

9. Even if they bail them out

it won't make a bit of difference in the long run, how many people will be buying cars in the next couple of months ? They will be well through that money in the next couple of months.

[glowing]

16. I'm not saying you don't work. I'm saying, people aren't buying.

The return value on a monster, gas guzzler is in the toilet. People's credit scores are in the toilet. The people who buy cars and worry about costs of gasoline are people who buy on credit and do need to have some kind of return on the guzzler they are trading in or trying to sell. The problem is that 8 yrs ago the big 3 needed to invest in cars that are practicle, convenient, and competetive. Now, you have someone like me who would be laughed out of the dealership if they ran my credit... and laughed at even harder if I expected a fair trade in.

So, if no one's buying... what's the point of producing.. At this point you'd be better off actually paying people NOT to produce items no one is buying.. re-tool the plants.. and start producing wind turbines after the facory is re-tooled.

[Joe Fields]

7. I certainly wouldn't defend the terribly managed industry.

For sure, a lot needs to be changed.

[sjdnb]

8. The really tragic part is that most Americans don't realize

that only a very small percentage of the moneys spent rebuilding Iraq (with their billions in surplus $$s) or spent on Corporate Subsidies/Bailouts/Defense Contracts will keep this industry solvent and the workers whole. It's just like all the flap about 'social programs' or 'public educations costs' which make up an insignificant portion of the Federal Budget. Sad that most Americans keep buying this BS, while the privatization of said institutions has FAILED us all, soundly, at an exorbitant cost.

[ngant17]

10. Consider 1 out of 4 or 5 jobs in this economy

That last figures I read, something like 1/4 or 1/5 of every job in America is automotive-related, this includes not just Detroit heavy industry, but also smaller businesses across the country, like mechanical repair shops, body shops, tire shops, even indirectly it would show some negative effect for gasoline/convenience store sales, vacation and travel industry any numerous other areas of economic activity.

I'm sure the finance industry was a sacred cow to many, but so is the idea of auto bailout. The only other option is to allow another great depression and the military will take over to run things by diktat, even worse than it is now under the Repugs with their 9-11 tragedy.

Simple question, who really did fail to protect us when it should have been avoided? This was another Gulf of Tonkin excuse, to get the military industrial complex in control of government cash flows. The least we can do, it is to reverse the direction of those subsidies.

[Canuckistanian]

11. How many horse drivers were there before automobiles?

Or icemen before refrigerators?

Time to move on, before Dainbramaged sees this......

:hide:

[2Design]

12. this makes much more sense than the banks and wall street funds that they are giving away n/t

[zbdent]

13. and how many jobs were tied to the steel industry

which supplied the American made steel, until the Japanese imported steel was dumped on the U.S.?

And how many jobs were tied to the parts industry, before all the cheap imported parts were dumped on the U.S.?

...

[Joe Fields]

15. and it hurt us a lot, and some areas are still reeling from it economically.

And so you are saying...

[zbdent]

14. Something I never hear during the discussions on the auto industry ...

in 2001, when Bush and company had the interest rates jacked down to nil, the auto industry not only offered "employee pricing", but also put in place "zero percent financing" ...

so, all those cars purchased with "zero percent interest" ... I think that is the point where the auto industry really shot itself in the foot ... It seems to me that was a cash cow for them ... no need for the consumer to go to a bank and pay the bank $20K for borrowing $12K when you can pay a car dealer $18K for a $12K car ...

[Tuesday Afternoon]

17. what about the furniture industry? what about the textile industry?

:shrug:

[Quantess]

18. I don't like the auto industry bailout.

It's just another corporate giveaway. Take taxes from the people, give it to the corporate giants.

I don't care if Obama supports it, I am against it.

[suston96]

19. Not to mention the effect of all those lost jobs on Social Security finances etc. ......nt

[leftstreet]

20. Why don't they give us all the money and we'll buy cars?

Problem solved.