I normally do not post videos on this site but here is a great one on the collapse of the auto industry. One point, I don't believe that a bailout is the answer unless the Big 3 guarantee that all money would be used for retooling the manufacturing facilities for next generation transportation and that all jobs created and supplies purchased are American. Otherwise our taxes will be used to update Mexican plants and pad the GM executive bonuses. Unless jobs are created here in this country the money is wasted, the Big 3 can only survive if Americans start buying again and we will only buy again if secure jobs are created.
Another point to make is that if the part makers go under spare parts will become difficult to acquire. That $5 fuel filter is minor until it clogs and you cannot replace it. Due to rising scrap metal prices there are very few junkyards left. We rely on the inexpensive replacement parts to keep our junk cars on the road. Without those parts every parked car becomes a gold mine for thieves looking to cash in on black market parts.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Auto Industry Collapse
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11 comments:
American car manufacturers aren't the only ones with a solid base in the US. We'll still have cars. We'll still have an infrastructure in place. There will still be companies manufacturing parts. The parts that are already in circulation will still be in circulation. I'm not arguing that it won't be an even bigger hit to our economy. It will be. When something stops working, though, we have to let it go away and then let whatever will replace it rise up and replace it. The infrastructure will still be there. The factories will still be there. The workforce will still be there. We'll just have to wait for the next wave of companies to come along and take over. You can thank the unions and restrictive legislation passed down by Congress for a lot of the trouble that they're facing now. For every 1 job that's actually producing something for the big 3 right now they're responsible for something like 170 retirements. On top of that the average pay of their workers is $73 an hour.
"Unless jobs are created here in this country the money is wasted, the Big 3 can only survive if Americans start buying again and we will only buy again if secure jobs are created."
I'm not so sure about that. I finally paid off my car and truck and I would not get into another loan like that unless I absolutely had to. Right now I am doing everything in my power not to have to - secure job or not.
This big industries are lining up for huge cash handouts. Banks, Auto, Air, ... the list goes on.
Let the market correct itself. It's the only way that will work.
Otherwise, where is MY bailout? I have a business too.
Screw 'em.
Just like they've been screwing us for decades. Screw the whole lot - unions, overpaid underworked union workers, overpaid and underworked execs. Screw 'em all.
The absurdity that the US should be captive to the notion that we're all gonna buy new cars every couple years, new cars that are no better than the previous models.
VW had it correct in the '60s - incremental improvements each year, not newer and flashier.
No bailout no way no how. Let a better organization(s) rise from the ashes. A bailout only postpones the inevitable.
As to spare parts, I believe there will be GREATER availability, not less. Industry can focus on providing parts with existing tooling, instead of junking the old in favor of the new.
I am over 40 and in Nursing school, I will in all probability work untill the day I die, why should I have to support these socalled retiries when I will never retire, and should those working poor who have only social unsecurity to look foward to also have to support them?
The socalled unions are the most nepotistic organazations in this country today. Let them reap what they have sown.
First up, I check every blog, and I have to hand it to ya, I have a lot of respect for what you do. However I have to disagree on this
I worked at Napa for quite a while. Spare parts will be made as long as there is a demand for them. Including that broken down 1989 olds delta eighty eight. Yes, they stil MAKE new parts for that, and not by GM either. As long as people drive them, there will be 3rd party companies manufacturing parts for them. They have the machines, it's cheap to do.
Second up, why on earth is it the people problem when a company screws up? Why should we be held responsible for a big company that cant keep it's head afloat? What happend to free markets and capitalistm? When a company offers poor products, poor service and high prices, unless they can beat the competition, sorry but thats their own fault.
In no way what soever should we the people. Private property owning, paid-off car owning, pait off house owning, paid-off boat owning citizens be responsible for some other douchebags fuckup.
If we stay at this pace, we will continue into wealth distribution, encouraging socialism, punishing those who become successfuel, and forcing all citizens to rely on the government to live!
SAY NO TO ANY CORPORATE BAILOUT!!!
STAND UP FOR YOUR STATE'S RIGHTS! IT IS UP TO US THE PEOPLE TO ENSURE WE REMAIN FREE, DO NOT HAND OVER YOUR HARD EARNED MONEY TO D.C JUST BECAUSE THEY SAY ITS GOOD!
wake up america and ask some questions.
And Mr. Bear, I'm really ashamed of you for posting this. Suck it up, protect yourself and your countrymen, and tell these socialist bastards to fuck off.
why would you install a used fuel filter?
As usual I was not completely clear. I ran this to say get prepared for the massive impacts not as a propaganda piece for the automakers.
I don't want any bailout for any industry.
Everyone should be getting away from debt any way possible. Then stay out of debt.
Unfortunately, the car industry is dependent on people who stay in debt by insisting that they keep driving the newest "safest" car on the market. They can't afford to produce a car that will last forever.
Reading these comments, it is really scary how many people have no clue what they are talking about.
The Urban Survivalist, your numbers are completely whack.
I'm not going to get into an argument with anyone, I will just say this: if you want TEOTWAWKI soon so you can practice your preps, let the domestic auto industry die. You'll get your SHTF scenario very soon after.
americans absurd anti-union mentality is the result of 25 yrs of capitalist "fee market will solve our problems" propaganda.
the unions have been the only american institution that has kept the american working people from total enslavement. for any person who has to get up and work in the morning bashing unions serves only to had links to that chain that binds you to americas corporate structure.
the corporate-willed demise of the unions went hand in hand with rise of globalism and its evils of low-wage and slave workers as well as outsourcing of good american union jobs.
love weekends, health insurance, 8hr workday, unemployment compensation? thank your union!
only the truly half-educated would want a further decline in the unions by wishing for the big 3 to fall. if they fall, then the last unions fall. and when they go prepare for your new glorious job as a under-paid, over worked no-OT position as a walmart drone.
america really has no hope when its people side so enthusiastically with its corporate murderers.
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