Gov't wants to bail out the big three.

[vision63]

rgG wrote:
While it is fine to say screw big corporations and let them fail, the repercussions of doing so might be far costlier in the long run than helping them out now.

One of the main reasons that the big 3 automakers are in trouble is the high cost of paying pension and health care benefits to retirees which makes it harder for them to compete with foreign makers that do not have these staggering obligations.

From Wikipedia:
In order to improve profits, the Detroit automakers made deals with unions to reduce wages while making pension and health care commitments. GM, for instance, at one time picked up the entire cost of funding health insurance premiums of its employees, their survivors and GM retirees, as the US did not have a universal health care system.[13] With most of these plans chronically underfunded in the late 1990s, the companies have tried to provide retirement packages to older workers, and made agreements with the UAW to transfer pension obligations to an independent trust.[14] Nonetheless, non-unionized Japanese automakers, with their younger American workforces (and far fewer American retirees) will continue to enjoy a cost advantage.[15

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Three_a...ufacturers

Ahem. All of that would be moot if they were selling cars. Not quite moot, but nearly so. The lack of government mileage requirement intervention (successfully bypassed again in the gigantic 2005 Energy Bill) necessary to ensure fuel efficiency was the stake driven into the heart of the Auto Industry. Trent Lott, BushCo and the rest of the GOP, in addition to Auto Workers and the Democrats that support them believed that market forces would resolve that issue. They said that requiring more fuel efficient cars would result in unsafe vehicles and a loss of sales to foreign automakers.

Then in 2006 Trent Lott and congress essentially switched positions which was too little too late.

That was pure manipulation by the Automakers, Congress "and" the Autoworkers. In the meantime, Toyota and Honda can't make enough cars. They need to let "market forces" handle the situation now. How could they even "think" of continuing with SUV's? They were selling and that's all they cared about. They are simply not selling what people want and they won't anytime soon. We should help Toyota buy them out like they allowed Wells Fargo to steal Wachovia and Chase, Washington Mutual. Then the Auto Industry would finally be in capable hands.