CNN poll Auto Industry bailout

[emilyg]

Poll Results
Should the government bail out the auto industry?
No 55% 20,818
Yes 33% 12,474
Not sure 12%

[endless october]

1. is this a nutcase idea or...

if the government is going to bail them out, wouldn't it be a better idea to give every current American automobile owner a coupon for a new American car and give the companies the money that way?

i'd go out and get the newest model of my car tomorrow if i had the money.

[FarCenter]

5. 230 million cars x $20,000 / car = $4.6 Trillion

Maybe $3 Trillion with a fleet discount.

[endless october]

8. there are 230 million current owners of American cars?

[FarCenter]

12. There are somewhat over 230 million cars, SUVs, pickups, vans

About 1.2 registered vehicles per licensed driver.

Right around 200,000,000 licensed drivers. Most of which would own or joint own a car.

[valleyreport]

10. Bailout?

It is not a bailout. It is a LOAN.

[customerserviceguy]

11. Yeah, and all those subprime

deals made to people for $250K mortgages on $30K incomes were loans, too.

[obiwan]

15. Until the car companies wiggle out of repayment...

... by threatening bankruptcy.

And the American public is left holding the bag.

Loan my ass. It's a bailout. If you think it's a loan, I have a bridge in the Arizona desert I want to sell you.

[DJ13]

2. I hope those 55% understand no bailout could trigger another depression

Our country has too much of our labor and manufacturing vested in the Big Three.

Any of them going under will trigger a tsunami of job losses around the country.

[OhioChick]

3. Yep....A domino effect will be seen. n/t

[Idealism]

4. More precisely, its the 'multiplier' effect :)

Person A works and get a paycheck
A spends money in B's shop
B spends money in C's grocery store

and so on. If 1 in every 10 workers in the US work directly or indirectly through the big 3, thats potentially 15 million americans directly affected by bankruptcy. And as Krugman pointed out, it will be a complete liquidation, chapter 7. Here today-- gone tommorow. Loss of consumer spending of 10% of our workforce will lead us to another depression, not to mention millions more home foreclosures which means lower home values due to futher market saturation of real estate, less tax revenue for the government which means higher national debt (because no one is getting the budget neutral any time soon), and huge government spending increasements in entitlements (unemployment benefits/insurance).

[earthside]

7. Have it now or have it later.

Trillions and trillions of dollars of new debt being stacked on top of the federal debt Bush has already piled on us is inevitably going to lead to a depression.

So, we can either deal with the pain now, or put it off, reward incompetence at the banks and auto companies, and have an even worse depression ... by maybe ... next June?

We are going to have to pay for the consequences of our materialistic, consumer society and our excessive 300 million population -- there is no getting around that truth.

Frankly, I'd rather deal with it now.

[wtmusic]

9. Agree.

Like staying in Iraq, we are prolonging the inevitable.

[madrchsod]

6. cnn polls are useless

[Winnipegosis]

13. BREAKING NEWS

...another useless CNN poll.

[TexasObserver]

14. Breaking News. You're mistaken.

CNN's online polls are useful, because they suggest something to all who look at them. If they're used by CNN, as they sometimes are, then they become more widely implicated.

Such polls are unsound, but they are useful.