Wow, that bailout, you know…the $700 BILLION bailout…that worked really well.
Turns out that there is going to be $350 BILLION for Obama to do with as he pleases when he takes office in January. Glad we thought that one out, fellas.
If the $700 billion was so necessary, why is half of it still going to be available when the new guy takes office? If I want to buy a house, I can’t take a mortgage for twice the value of my future home. I can only mortgage the value of the home. When I bought my car, they didn’t offer me $40,000 so that I could buy gas and pay for oil changes. My loan was equal to the value of my car.
So, why the heck did they earmark twice what they needed for this bailout? And why were we NOT ALLOWED TO VOTE on being so deeply in debt? Was this bailout really necessary, or was this one more noose tightening around our collective neck?
The US is a free market, capitalist society. What that means to me is that businesses are free to succeed or fail. And you are allowed to make a lot of money doing so. That means that, if a business, like GM, for example, fails, the government is supposed to let them fail. It sucks that so many people will be out of jobs. But, part of being here in America is that while you have the chance to make a hell of a lot of money, you also have the chance of failing and ending up destitute. If you fail, you can pick yourself up by the bootstraps and try again.
The government stepping in and “helping” these mega-businesses is bad news for the rest of us. While they are enjoying their million dollar homes and bonuses and cars and yachts, the rest of us are stuck picking up their tab. Let GM, Ford, and all of the other terrible US car companies go out of business. If they couldn’t see the trends, they deserve to fail. Giving them money to “bail them out” would be like throwing our tax dollars into a cess pool. They are terrible business people. Let them fall on their faces, rework their business models and then bring a fuel-efficient, dependable car to market.
I remember when Hyundai first brought cars to market. Noone wanted to buy them because we perceived that their cars were pieces of crap. Now, that is how the world perceives US cars. What Hyundai did was change with the market. They saw the demand that would be and designed cars to meet future needs.
What the US car makers are doing is looking backwards or sideways. Oh…people like big SUV’s and cars. Let’s keep doing what we’ve always done. CRAP! HIGH OIL PRICES?!?!?! OH CRAP! Who’ll buy our cars now? What are we going to do? OH NO. Let’s lay off a bunch of workers and hope that the US government has bought into the idea that the whole economy will crumble if we can’t bring our outdated, crappy cars to market. WHEW. Looks like that’s gonna work.
Of course, our chance to tell the government what we thought of them occurred on Nov 4. And most of the people of my fine nation voted for the status quo. Thanks for entering the polls and making an educated decision. We voted all of the geniuses right back into their offices.
My great-grandchildren will greatly appreciate paying off the debt we have incurred.
Deneen White 
Hey, I’m no genius, but why don’t we take some of the profits of the oil companies and give it to the auto industry?
Certainly the two cannot live without each other, and certainly the oil companies can afford it.
christianliberal,
That is a FANTASTIC idea!
~D
Mm, mm, mm…
I thought good business sense was having a vision of where the market was going, adjusting sales and products according to those trends, and waiting for the people to respond and watch the long term profit come in.
What these auto-motive companies are doing is milking short term markets for all they’re worth. But there seems to be little plan for the future. If they get bailed out, they going to be in the same situation in 15 years time if they don’t adjust their market sense.
Also… I’ve been thinking…
Ok, I’m not American, and I don’t know the American people apart from what I read in the media and see on TV. And I understand this Blog is directed at Americans. So, here’s my dilemma…
The current campaign to raise 50 000 shoes in 50 days is an incredible feat. One that I admire. But I can’t help but notice one needs to make a donation using their credit card.
I have noticed that there a thousands of campaigns such as these where donors can donate using their credit cards, albeit a small donation.
But my problem is this… The people that are donating in one campaign, have probably donated to numerous other campaigns too, and what is left is probably a hefty hole each month on the card’s statement. What if these people don’t pay off their cards timeously? Because I am sure there are more drains on the card than just donations.
So if there are thousands of people all doing the same thing, and neglecting repayments, then technically these foundations are receiving borrowed money that isn’t getting paid back quick enough to the banks and the banks are under pressure.
OK, I know I’ve gone on here, and probably haven’t made much sense, but I am trying to work this out. I know that the American people are incredibly generous. We only have to look at Katrina, and the Tsunami in Asia etc. to see that. But what if this generosity isn’t coming from a stable source? Surely debts should be faithfully dealt with before we come to the aid of others?
Or maybe there should be a great cost to giving? At the moment it is so easy.
OK, I know I’m digging myself in a hole here… 🙂 But do you hear what I’m saying?
Gee!!
Sorry for all that!
Hey James,
I totally understand where you are coming from.
I don’t think that it is the intention of the people from the 50000 shoes initiative to have people put the $5 or whatever sum it may be on a credit card, to go into debt to give to those who have need. In the US, most of us have ATM/debit cards that take money directly out of our bank accounts that have Visa or MasterCard logos on them.
Perhaps they should’ve set up a Paypal account or something like that for the transactions…
My problem with the bailout is exactly what you said. They want money to meet immediate needs, but there is little to no indication that they’ve planned for the future. They’ve been milking the current market to death and not looking forward. That is why other countries’ cars are kicking American cars’ butts. The only reason I drive an American car is because it was relatively inexpensive. I had doubts about my purchse when, within six months, I had to get the blower on my heater replaced 🙂
Thanks for the comments on my blog. It’s great to be making friends with someone on the other side of the world!
~D