How many billions to bail out US auto industry?
A Hemi-powered hybridIn recent weeks a lot of the mainstream auto press has come to the defense of the US auto industry claiming that no one foresaw $4.00 gas. No one except those with their eyes open.
Let's just be honest. The US auto industry built their entire business model around trucks and SUVs, period. For a plethora of reasons, US automakers wouldn't even try to compete with companies like Honda for the small vehicle segment, for fuel efficiency, even despite events like 9/11, Katrina, etc. which seemed to demonstrate quite clearly that oil dependence was leading to ever greater problems. Instead, US automakers blindly kept all their eggs in one very inefficient, but profitable basket.
Now that basket is broke and the eggs are cracked.
So, it will be up to Congress, with the help of US taxpayer money, to bail out the US auto industry, at least that's the hope of a non-partisan Michigan delegation, according to the DetroitNews. Billions in loans. Billions in tax breaks. Billions to retire old gas guzzlers. Almost a billion for a battery fund. Billions and billions to cover the costs of ignorance and denial.
Nothing like good old American free market lobbyism, I mean capitalism.
Labels: Foreign Oil Dependency, fuel efficiency
posted by Dahcredyns at
7:11 AM
6 Comments:
Don't get me started...it's a bit of a broken record isn't it? Also though, just saw the commercial the new Pilot from Honda. Instead of a hybrid, they have employed the active cylinder thing making it go form 6 cylinders of gas guzzlng to 4 when it can. Wow. What a great idea. My folks have a 300M that has that and it doesn't help for squat. Honda sucks too. They all suck. Need the little guys to get bigger and take over.
Just what am I, the American beleagured tax payer, getting for this bailout? Will I get to buy a newer, better built, more efficient car at employee prices? Will cars be affordable, better made, and get over 30 mph(city)? I want to know how GM, Ford, and Chysler are goiong to pull this off.
The Federal Reserve System insures that we will pay through the nose for these bailouts. It happens time and time again. Unfortunately, we do not see these atrocities as taxes, but as a weakening of our dollar in the form of inflation due to the Federal Reserve creating money out of nothing and then loaning it to our government to subsidize the lame auto industry.
What really hurts is that all the auto manufacturers were right there...in the late '90's with their electric cars. If only we could have stayed the course and spent the last 10 years refining the process....sigh.
The US automakers didn't compete with the other makers because they didn't need to....
Why make cars that are high quality, safe, and efficient when you can build junk, inefficient pieces of floating turd at 50% profit to a bunch of mindless, self-righteous people and be seen as heros and patriots?
I mean come on...what better environment to make money in?
The US automakers new full well what they were doing? Why? Because EVEN AS WE SPEAK, GM has turned around and is doing the same thing....selling these pieces of junk...to the Chinese.
If you burned your hand on an open flame showing one friend, would you burn it again without any forethought to show another friend the next day?
US automakers neither care for, care about, or think about who they are selling to, the environment or what impact they are having.
And one of the worst of the 3, Chrysler. Check out this vehicle, and who makes it...so where is Chrysler in the hybrid market?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/main.jhtml?xml=/motoring/2008/07/25/mnfuture125.xml
I'd probably rather have the EV referenced in the link above rather than a Durango hybrid. i guess if chrysler goes out of business they have a future in EV gulf carts!
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