There is no evidence they care about the strength of the company. The management and employees only care about enriching themselves.

The CEO’s told congress there is nothing wrong with their leadership. They blamed outside forces.

Why aren’t the rank and file demanding thir unions to work with management.

The big three only want to use the bailout to buy time. Then it’s business as usual till the funds run out (kind-of like a drug-addict).

I wish it was different. I wish the utopia existed. However, it has been 30 years since the Carter gas lines.

What have they done?

Toyota and Nissan went from being cheap, economical, gas saving, tinker-toy cars to first-class, gas saving vehicles.

Ford, Chrysler, and GM continue to develop poor quality, gas guzzlers.

How many times and how many ways do they need to be told their product suck? (Consumer Reports, other auto magazines, shrinking market share, previous chrysler bankruptcy)

I hope the big three auto companies keep this in mind:

“QUALITY IS NUMBER 1. Not just in words but in deed”.

I believe the american public would back them if the CEOs, management, unions, and workers made that first and foremost.

Otherwise, it’s just throwing good money after bad.

To bail or not to bail; was that the question?

If we bail, we face the prospect of Big Three leaders regarding a bailout as a gift, a reward, even their just due. If this happens, the car makers go back to business as usual, and the bailout accomplishes nothing.

If we don’t bail, roughly three million jobs will be lost, and will have to be replaced. Additionally, the trend toward sending dollars offshore that we need in our communities will not only continue, but accelerate, in the absence of an American alternative. We’d have a very hard time avoiding the admission that we’d then be in a Depression.

So, we can bail, and fail, and we can not bail, and still fail. What was the question again?

What really has to be accomplished is to transform the American transportation infrastructure into a form more viable for the future. Cars are surely part of that future, but we have to make some decisions about what kinds of transportation we need, and, for that to happen, we need our leadership to take some forward-looking positions.

Once we choose the shape of the transportation infrastructure to come, the kinds of vehicles we need to go with that will sort of follow; until we make the first choices, there is no foundation from which to talk about vehicles, and vehicle makers can’t find their relevance, either.

People can argue forever about whether or not this situation demonstrates a failure of the market system, but that argument boils down to a discussion of what markets are, whet they’re good at, and what they’re not so good at. Once you understand the limitations of markets, you’d never even try to use them in a forward-thinking context.

Markets do a great job of asset allocation, they’re very effective at delivering products of known value to potential buyers, and, if they’re really competitive, they’re great at efficiency. Note, though, that nowhere on the list of things markets are good at does “leadership” appear.

One way of looking at markets is to say that they’re a concrete expression of our investment in the status quo. Because the value of the future, or of future products, is unknown, it’s very hard to value or trade future products in a market; it’s often been attempted, and it often ends badly. Markets con’t do everything, and they most especially can’t do leadership.

Getting back to the point, we need to reach a decision as to what the direction of transportation needs to be, and we ought to hire American companies to implement that direction. There are plenty of reasons it would make sense for the Big Three to be a part of that.

In the short run, we can’t really afford to eliminate all those jobs just now. In the long run, no good can come of leaving our strategic decisions to the vagaries of markets, because markets don’t do strategy. We have to make our leaders lead, and earn their pay for a change, and, after we choose our direction, let the markets come into play to help us get where we want to go.

Markets are great at certain things, but our Republican brothers have tried to persuade us that markets are repositories of wisdom, and that’s just a swindle.

Instead, it’s the captain and officer sail over to a yacht and watch the crew and passengers sink.

They’re a bunch of #$@! cowards and cheats.

Arriving in separate jets to BEG for money, Mgmt and UAW pay, and benefits are barometers of the company’s vitility! Who wants to throw good money after bad?

Give them your !#&* money and stay out of mines.

What is an ‘unnecessary’ employee? Can you define that for me? Would you feel the same way if it were you who got the axe?

I am not saying that the big three aren’t without waste. Any company that has more than 20 people working for it probably has at least one useless employee.

Even the whole ‘cut CEO pay’ thing. I call this symbolism over substance. GM bled away $2 billion in Q3. Their CEO Rick Wagoner has a 2008 salary of just over $2 million.

Do you know what that means? It means that the CEO made just over $500,000 during Q3. Compare that to the $2 billion loss, and you are at one quarter of one tenth of a percent.

If you think the management needs to change as part of a bailout then fine, but this BS class warfare stuff is junk. It is counter productive. Just like griping about flying a corporate jet to DC.

I do recognize the power of symbolism though, and I think it was rather short-sighted of them to fly the way they did.

You people don’t get it. Detroit built big cars because that is what people were buying. It is a well known fact that the margins are higher on the SUV type vehicles. The big three NEED those margins because of their ‘healthcare for life’ gold packages that retirees are getting.

We wanted big, they are good at building big, we got what we wanted. No law or regulation forcing them to build 50 mpg cars would change that fact.

Did you ever see a smart car? I don’t care what gas costs, you couldn’t pay me to drive one of those on the freeway in the rain and wind. If you would have shown one of those to the American public five years ago, they would have balked at it. Oh… wait… They did how it five years ago, and we did balk at it.

AIG, Citi, Amex, JP Morgan, etc. should ALL be in front of Congress in the same fashion Detroit was. That’s where my problem lies. I don’t know that a $25 billion loan to the Big 3 is THE answer, but I know letting them fail and saying they’re horrible companies certainly is NOT.

People wanted trucks, they built them, get over it. If you didn’t want one you shouldn’t have bought, caveat emptor. We’re still sort of a free market.

I just don’t understand how America is OK with AIG getting $120+ billion untethered (and throws an executive junket on the taxpayers to boot). But somehow everyone has this huge problem with bailout out the ONLY major industry we have left. Logic seems to escape the American public and the US Government.

THIS IS THE WILD, WILD WEST, BUDDY! Wake up and smell the coffee (in your cup).

It is all about GREED! Then as well as now. Nothing has change. These people are not good custodians of nothing. It is all about their own pockets. To He#! with everything else.

I am against all the bailouts. I have not seen one person or business that deserves it.

They only have to look in the mirror as to why they are in financial trouble. And when you look in the mirror you’ll see a big dollar sign on your face- GREED.

Consider this a Profile in Courage moment and take responsibility for yourself.

If we individually want our pet industries to be bailed out then we are THE problem — becuase we think it is OK to take from our brother.

It is ironic — we didn’t leave the bill for our children we’ll pay it ourselves.

“Why Citigroup…” because it’s not about your job or house, it’s about you paying the bill now.

If it helps the banking industry then Detriot will be bailed out.

Ev-1 was killed because of people lying about leasing it( it was NEVER for sale , ever ). Consumers said nope its no good and didnt lease one ( 8% of made cars were leased. Blame the EV-1 on reality , gas was cheap , global warming was a myth still , people wanted a big HUMMER cause Arnold had one….

Gm can compete globally, in fact Gm does VERY well outside the US and is a benchmark for vehicle in parts of Europe and Asia. ( in China a Buick is the king of cars and has been for a while not Lexus , not Infinity , not Honda). The small diesel cars in europe are amazing , but the avg american wont settle for a 92 hp engine that gets 38 mpg unless it has toyota stamped on it for some reason.

Gm switched to global platforms in design before anyone else did using Holden and Opel (Toyota and Honda took this form of design FROM GM years ago. The busjiness m,odel you all applaud so highly was taken from GM , go figure.

GM produces MORE Alt fuel vehicles than anyone else and ALWAYS has. AND they dont lie about it for example …
The Prius used to advertise as 60 MPG , it reality it got 40-45 .. if GM did that you would all howl and foam at the mouth , Toyota does it and you dont care.

The new 2 mode Hydrid tech that GM is using is the top of the world to the point that BMW and Honda are interested in licensing it to use in their cars because its a better system ( yeah it took longer to come out but its better quality).

Gm put a fleet of hydrogen vehicles out last year way ahead of anyone else, not testing on a track, out in the real world used by volunteer people and their family.

They have put the Volt engine into a VUE making 11 of them that show promise to revolutionize The Crossover segment AND give you great gas mileage.

The issue with GM hasnt been cars its mis-informed opinion that GM generated in the 80’s adn early 90’s that peolpe are too hung up on, old out of date info , and to lazy to even go look.

Hell some GM pick -up trucks get better gas mileage than foreign SEDANS the mid size ones (corolla etc…).

Anyway as to a bail-out i dont think anyone should have gotten one but now that the box has been opened there really isnt a choice anymore , besides The democrats got ALOT of cash from the UAW and the Big 3 , they owe them favors they will get their bailout. This is all grandstanding by congress to impress the gullible masses of voters who cant really bother themselves to learn a simple fact or two and instead sit in ignorance with their only outdated data about GM , ford and chrysler they learned back in 1985 and never bothered to update.
Sad , the American people have always been and it seems continue to be their own worst enemy.
Reminds me of a saying from somewhere…
“Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups”.

These guys were banking on profits they didn’t already have. Guess what? If All the Big 3 go under, that creates a monopoly. What do you think will happen with only two car companies remaining? This is Economics 101. It calls for increased demand, the price GOES UP. And you need to look at some of those tax cuts that the Alabama Senator got those foreign companies for his state. The stock market went down in Japan because all of the profits HERE GO TO JAPAN! OTHERWISE, OUR STOCK MARKET WOULD HAVE GONE DOWN MORE.

With all the manufacturing that has left the US for decades, service jobs don’t give the money to purchase good when prices go up.

Citi increased interest rates when all of these people are losing their jobs, and their houses. Where is their plan?
WHere IS the ANGER? The banks will fail if the big 3 go down, with all the businesses attached, and how many people will be defaulring into bandkruptcy, as the banks are still two months after the Lehman debacle sitting on all of that money.

The JAPANESE GOV”T has given their car companies money for years to retool and modernize. We haven’t. The US is the only country that plays by these crazy rules. Pushing paper jobs will disappear in droves when real manufacturing jobs are lost.

From an economics major who is scared to death of how our congress does not get it!!