Tag Archives: auto industry

JUST SAY NO TO BAILOUTS!

This is why this bailoutpalooza leads to socialism. How can you say no to a piddly $25 billion when you’ve made it clear that you won’t even stop at $700 billion?

WASHINGTON – Congressional officials say Democratic leaders have decided to put off a bailout vote for the auto industry until December and will insist that the Big 3 first come up with a plan showing how the money would help transform their industry.

Because anyone who can afford to have someone draft a solid proposal deserves to have money thrown at their problems. IT DOESN’T WORK. Money cannot fix fundamental problems in industries. When huge industries are thrown lifeline after lifeline, hanging on by a thread, it kills the effectiveness of the free market by failing eliminating the weak links. In order for some to succeed, others must fail. PERIOD. And Detroit WON’T succeed if things stay the way they are, regardless of whether or not they have another $25 billion to cover their butts for a while.

Let Detroit Go Bankrupt

Mitt Romney gets it right

If General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.

Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.

Granted, he screwed up with his bailout position. However, this op-ed is spot on. You can’t fix fundamental weaknesses in an industry by throwing billions of dollars at them. Until the UAW is busted up and American manufacturers quit operating at a $2000 per vehicle handicap, they are going to struggle.  Well done, Mitt.