Reuters poll results on the question "Should the Government bail out US Automakers?"
Yes: 25%
No: 75%
http://polls.reuters.com/us/1225981225511
That's three to one. I dare the Democrats to try. They will regret it. But lets look at this level-headedly here -there is no reason to support an industry that has had plenty of opportunity to change since they saw the writing on the wall in the 70's but they didn't for one reason or other (selling cars and SUVs was making so much money!). Well now they are paying the price. And if people don't want as many cars anymore, there's no point paying the companies to keep making them just like they were 5 years ago. We must simply accept that there will be consolidation and pain in the industry and let's do what we can to help the workers find something else to do. And the sooner the better. Build trains. The Japanese do it. The French do it. The Chinese do it. Why can't Americans? Build roads and towns that are walkable and don't even need driving. Imagine if your 10yr old kids could walk or ride a bike to school without you having to worry for their life. Imagine if you could walk to schools, shops, pools, tennis, library, doctors etc without having to get in your car everytime. Instead of being wide, open high-speed rivers of steel, exposed to the elements, imagine if most roads in the city were narrow tree-lined lanes with a canopy of tree cover, to protect pedestrians from the wind, sun and all but the hardest rain.
Imagine...
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And I found absolutely regrettable the fact Obama asked to -still- president Bush all the possible support for the automotive industry. It's a very bad first sign from "the president of The Change".
Regards!
Yes - I cannot agree more. This does not bode well. The decline of the US "automobile nation" is not a short term phenomenon coming out of the credit crunch that can be fixed with a few cheap loans and all will be hunky dory. It is, I am convinced, a fundamental world-wide rethink of the long term viability of the whole automobile economy with US automakers at the epicentre. People may still want to ignore it, but it's happening already - auto has become a sunset industry in the US, Japan, and most of Europe, and my bet is it may very soon be worldwide for reasons totally unconnected with the credit crunch. There might be an argument for US handing out helicopter loads of federal money to permit an orderly decline rather than collapse of the industry in 6-months, but just remember, "you're gonna pay tomorrow" as the song goes. Even if they manage to retool, any hybrid or EV market that develops will be a far cry from the scale of current auto markets. Government money will not be well spent propping up these industries that are failing, and frankly should be allowed to fail.
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