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Bailing Out Detroit
By Demosthenes | November 13, 2008
As sad and painful as it might be, we need to resist the temptation to bail out our domestic automakers. What we would really be doing is subsidizing unions. This is nothing but more evidence of our tendency toward socialism. The price of the average automobile built in by GM, Ford, and Chrysler has over $1,500 of health care costs for the workers who built it. The average amount for Toyota? $300.
Management at the big three have been complaining for years that the cost of employee benefits demanded by autoworker unions isn’t sustainable. Well, it shouldn’t be a surprise that the time of unsustainability would come during an economic downturn. I don’t blame them for asking, but our taxpayer dollars should not be used to pump money into an unsustainable model. Let them go the natural way of things. Others will step in to meet the need, but you can be it won’t be with unions.
Topics: General | 5 Comments »
5 Responses to “Bailing Out Detroit”
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November 13th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
We don’t even know where the $700B is going yet and they’re talking about bailouts for the auto industry, what about the health care industry, the housing industry, the rest of the insurance industry in fairness since AIG is already in the government’s control, etc…
There is no end once the pandora box is open!
There are no politicians who will tell the truth and let people know that we didn’t get here overnight and it was the governments fault in large part for sticking their hands into the private sector to begin with and the best thing to do is let these companies work out their own problems and that the country will be stronger and better for it later. No, all these politicians have to charge in like the Lone Ranger and be the hero and all it is doing is prolonging the problem and opening the doors to more and more government intervention at all levels of our society.
November 14th, 2008 at 9:01 am
I also think it is interesting that we were told we MUST have the $700 billion to buy toxic assets. Then, after they got the money approved, they changed their minds about what to do with it. Did they have a plan or not?
November 17th, 2008 at 7:36 am
[...] hearing a lot these days about bailing out Detroit.