Should We Bail Out GM?

There is a lot of controversy going on now about government help for the auto companies, General Motors specifically, but I don’t really see why it should be such a big deal. For me, it’s cut and dried. The government needs to help the auto companies, period. There shouldn’t be any question about it.

Here’s my reasoning. They have already made the decision to get the government involved with bailing out corporations in trouble. The first bailout package committed 700 billion of our tax dollars to this end with another bailout package in the making. The idea of bailing out these companies is so their failure won’t have a disastrous effect on our economy. This is logical thinking at least and whether it’s the right thing to do is moot at this point because it’s already being done.

I can’t really see an argument NOT to help GM. Experts say that if GM fails, Ford and Chrysler will follow, so it’s not just GM we’re talking about, it’s the entire U.S. auto industry. Think about that and let it sink in; the total elimination of automobile manufacturing in this country. No more American cars. The industry that has been the backbone of our nation during its growth and prosperity; dead... Do we want to let that happen?

There’s also our independence as a nation to consider. Do we want to lose such a huge portion of our manufacturing capability in this country? We’ve made ourselves dependent on others for oil; do we want to make ourselves dependent on others for our cars as well? We’re trying to be independent for energy production; we shouldn’t be so quick to want to lose ground in another important industry.

Some will argue that they won’t completely go out of business if they are allowed to go into bankruptcy but even if they are able to reorganize, they won’t survive in their present form and it will have a monumental effect on our economy. This is THE most important reason for helping GM, as Joe Biden himself so dubiously put it with his “3 letter word”, JOBS. The auto industry employs hundreds of thousands of people who would join the ranks of the unemployed if they fail. But it’s not only the employees of the Big Three; there are thousands of businesses that are suppliers to the auto industry that would be down the drain as well. 3 million jobs is the estimate. How do you think that would impact our economy?

I’ve heard some of the other lame arguments why GM should be left to fail, like they have been mismanaged. Well, if that was a determining factor, why are we helping Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and AIG which have all been grossly mismanaged and still are, but funds are flowing to them.

If GM is somewhat mismanaged, at least they haven’t run the company into the ground to the extent of management at Fannie and Freddie and have not shown the blatant irresponsibility of the morons at the helm of AIG who promptly took their execs on not one, but two lavish junkets after receiving their bailout money. That’s mismanagement to say the least, if not downright despicable, so to help AIG and not GM would just be backward thinking. It wouldn’t make any sense at all.

These companies don’t even produce anything either, they only deal in money. Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, AIG; none of them produce anything tangible. Absolutely nothing at all. The auto makers produce a tangible product that the American public uses every day. For those of you who mistakenly think they don’t make a product people want to buy, GM outsells all other manufacturers including Honda and Toyota so don’t think their products aren’t in demand. I would rather see my tax dollars helping a company that actually makes something of quality instead of just the “money changers.”

Don’t think we are just giving them money either. We are just talking about loans here. In normal times, GM would borrow money from commercial sources but the banks aren’t loaning money, even though a big part of the bailout package was intended to loosen up the lending market, the banks seem to be holding onto it for themselves. GM needs loans to get them through the market downturn and it’ll be repaid when things pick back up again. It worked for Chrysler a few years back so there’s no reason to think it won’t work for GM.

To put it simply, helping the auto industry now will help our country in the long run and I for one want them to be a part of America’s future. I proudly buy and drive American and I want to keep doing so.