No doubt, bankruptcy by Ford, GM or Chrysler would do further harm to the staggering economy. The question before Congress is what would be worse — pouring taxpayers' hard-earned dollars into a poorly managed, uncompetitive industry or allowing bankruptcy to take its toll, whatever the damage.
Congress should look at more than just the auto industry. Almost all manufacturing in the United States has suffered in the global economy. The steel industry, the textile industry, the furniture industry — all have dwindled to nearly nothing because of global competition and detrimental federal policies. Rather than just bail out Detroit, Congress should consider how the United States can restore its manufacturing base.
Some have worried about the impact of losing the automakers on national security. In World War II, all the automakers churned out jeeps, tanks, trucks and so forth for the war effort. Could the United States face a similar threat without the heavy industry that dominated U.S. jobs in the 1930s, 40s and 50s? America has given up on manufacturing and has tried to gain prosperity through creative financing, which is what sparked the current economic crisis. To be truly successful, the United States needs to make things, not just finance them. Perhaps the United States can't compete in highly labor-intensive industries, but it should be able to compete in manufacturing things that utilize robotics and other labor-saving devices. The Obama administration should create policies, including tax policies, that reward domestic manufacturing of a wide variety of goods.
Cars can be manufactured successfully in this country. Just ask Toyota, Nissan, Honda and Hyundai.
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"....Congress must save the industrial infrastructure that these companies control and the jobs they create. And it must save the world from the internal combustion engine. This great, vast manufacturing network can redeem itself by building mass transit and electric/hybrid cars, and the kind of transportation we need for the 21st century.
And Congress must do all this by NOT giving GM, Ford and Chrysler the $34 billion they are asking for in "loans" (a few days ago they only wanted $25 billion; that's how stupid they are -- they don't even know how much they really need to make this month's payroll. If you or I tried to get a loan from the bank this way, not only would we be thrown out on our ear, the bank would place us on some sort of credit rating blacklist).
Two weeks ago, the CEOs of the Big 3 were tarred and feathered before a Congressional committee who sneered at them in a way far different than when the heads of the financial industry showed up two months earlier. At that time, the politicians tripped over each other in their swoon for Wall Street and its Ponzi schemers who had concocted Byzantine ways to bet other people's money on unregulated credit default swaps, known in the common vernacular as unicorns and fairies..."
Read (the rest of) Mike's letter.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/
Well said. I fear that the US will become a bedroom community to the rest of the world. But who will be able to afford the service industries if all our other jobs have gone overseas?
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