The Death of Personal Responsibility
Monday, March 9, 2009 9:03The Death of Personal Responsibility
Today at 11:26am
by Steven Rathje
I’m convinced more than ever that General Motors is one of many troubled companies that would benefit from my pro-business, tax friendly “Stimulus Proposal” (http://steverathje.com/economy.php click on alternatives)
After the recent report put out by Deloitte & Touche, There is no doubt that this Company is heading straight for bankruptcy. And why shouldn’t it? General Motors has already burned through $13.4 billion of your money in less than six months. The company’s revenue fell from $180 billion in 2007 to $149 billion in 2008, with the worst crash being in the fourth quarter with car sales continuing to plummet well into the new year.
According to the latest statistics, General Motors is now worth 1.5 Billion (on paper) , they’ve borrowed $13 billion already and now they’re requesting another $ 16 billion of your money. I propose that not one more taxpayer dollar be loaned/given to the General Motors or any OTHER company for purposes of a financial bailout. ALL should be forced into bankruptcy courts the same way the airlines and other businesses and families have had to. This allows them to re-organize (under the protection of the courts) stand up to,and renegotiate with the Unions and their supply chains, etc. This bail out situation is beyond understanding and the American people should be outraged.
Bankruptcy will eliminate the chokehold the union has over them regardless of what the politicians say. The Mayor of Detroit, more then anyone, should recognize that bailouts a long term solution. Because the root cause still exists after the money is spent. It’s not about politics or votes, it’s about sound business practices that must be permitted to be put in place if our automobile industry and its thousands of jobs are to survive. Unfortunately it was poor business decisions on the part of the automobile industry as well as the government that got us where we are today, so how is it that we rely on their expertise to solve the problem. For example: current “Union wages and benefits” (totaling $154.00 per/hr) equate to $1200 added to the cost of each American made automobile. No company can expect to be competitive and sell to the average American that pays that kind of compensation to its workers.
The obvious long term solution is to simply allow the free market system to work. The Obama Administration/Democrats, must learn that the only thing that will lead to real solvency is personal responsibility, tax cuts, honest labor and supply negotiation and less government interference and regulation. It’s not rocket science, it’s common sense. The automobile industry simply can no longer afford the huge burden it carries, regardless of who is footing the bill (ie: the American taxpayer or the Automobile Industry). The bailout in essence (your money) reflects your approval. I say allow the Automobile Industry to fail, let it learn from its mistakes and emerge the American juggernaut we all know it can be.
Steven R. Rathje
www.STEVERATHJE.com
One Response to “The Death of Personal Responsibility”
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Seed Newsvine
L says:
April 18th, 2009 at 3:45 am
Speaking as a recent buyer of a used Japanese car from Mexico, Detroit is going bankrupt because American cars ARE CRAP IMHO. It's not the unions, it's not regulation, it's nothing complicated, they're just fragile, gas-guzzling monstrocities that are as hard to park as they are to handle (you try finding parallel parking space for an extra long truck in rush hour) and require expensive spare parts. I had a choice between a '92 Nissan Sunny (which I bought) and a '94 Ford Thunderbird, and the thunderbird was actually nearly half the price of the sunny but I still bought the Nissan, why? because whatever I could have saved in initial price would have evaporated within two years in fuel, maintenance and spare parts (rule of thumb, Ford cars spare parts go between 2-3 times what Nissan spares cost here). You could substract those $1200 from each car and people still wouldn't buy them because they're STILL overpriced crap. And rest assured when I save enough money to buy a new car from a distributor in a few years, it will NOT be an American car, regardless of cost.
Protip: American car companies, if you want MY business, stop shoving plastic crap under the hood, and stop charging me ridiculous amounts of cash for fiberglass body parts. And don't give me that crap about “fuel efficiency”, fuel efficient sturdy cars are as old as the original Willys Jeep and VW bug. I'm not buying a disposable plastic radiatior, I want the GOOD metal stuff like you used to make during the 50's, 60's and early-mid 70's.
You can talk about personal responsability and rightly so, they should in theory let them fail, but blaming the unions and suppliers for inflating costs while Detroit's been trying to cram awful product in the market in the face of better competition for the past two decades is disingenuous at best.