(or A Long Term Solution for Our Auto Industry)
There is a reason that the U.S. auto companies are bankrupt and it is not just that we are having an economic downturn. That has merely accelerated the crisis. Last week we the taxpayers gave the automakers a one month reprieve in the form of a loan which cost 15 billion dollars. Next month we need leadership to do something that addresses the core problems in the industry as well as look at the economic big picture.
Auto industry problems:
1. Health care costs have been undermining the U.S. auto industry for well over a decade adding substantial overhead to the costs of manufacturing a car.
2. We are in a recession. Car sales are down by 1/3 and are not expected to improve in the near term.
3. The shortsighted choices of product line and more that have contributed to downward spiral of this huge American industry.
Sensible responses:
1. The vast majority of Americans are calling for health care that serves them and does not bankrupt them or the companies they work for. Dozens of other countries provide their citizens with better care at a fraction of the cost of U.S. health care. Time to learn from success.
2. The auto industry has the capacity to build more cars than consumers have the resources to buy for at least a year if not four. What might we do with all that excess capacity? Hmmm, we want to keep autoworkers employed, we want a competitive auto industry and we want clean renewable energy to power our economic recovery. So, why not convert 1/3 of the automakers' industrial capacity to building state-of-the-art wind generation?
You don't need to be an economist, an engineer, or a government leader, to see the common sense in this solution. During World War II the car industry turned into a tank industry. We need to be strategic in solving our economic and energy woes. This is in fact a great opportunity and a far less dramatic adjustment that WWII required.
3. Might be time to consider a change in management.
Like I said I'm basing this on common sense -- I'm pretty sure it is time to tap some of the good old American know-how and entrepreneurial spirit before our cautious, short-term, don't-make-waves solutions send us down the drain.
Protest the bailout at http://www.autoindustrybailout.com/petition/
Peace.
Give the automakers a bunch of money to retrofit to making wind power equipment and the current wind power manufacturers and investors will cry foul. These so-called subsidies will be decried by proponents of solar, clean coal, nuclear, hell, even big oil will whine.
Until we fix our monetary policy and overall economic system, none of these great ideas will go anywhere!
Step 1 - abolish the Federal Reserve and take back the generation of our money supply from the private bankers.
Step 2 - bring in high level technololgists and have open meetings on where we can go and what we can do to both get people working, get america building something again, AND position our country for long-term sustainable growth and not short-term, profit driven greed.
if auto plants close as the *plan manufacture states can they reopen .
The labor force wil move .
It is Labor feeds and builds the world.
Monitary gain , Obama , needs be in the individuals hands .
a common sense approach of new growth .
When a worker is idle tax revenu is (0). The treasury fund is built on this revenue .
Capitol and labor are still at odds let us not put away or nullify arbitration and contract.
If our auto industry will follow the best Japanese, or EU companies, they will loose because they will follow yesterday solutions.
The same is true in housing, steel, machine tool, high-speed rail, etc.
Green energy, wind, solar cells powers are disaster for environment, only Al Gore and members of new Gov. can’t understand that. If new Government will follow green recommendation it will be dead end for Economy.
CEO without creativity, who used old ideas, creates bubbles in housing, car industry, banking system etc.
We can’t afford support CEO who creates bubbles in economy.
We need new vision on global warming solutions. We need road without intersection, cart weighting 20 Lb. instead of 4,000 Lb.; small power plants where we can use as electrical as heat energy.
We need more Inventors for 21-century vision.
We need reevaluate almost all our offers, because they are not scientific.
http://www.cartalk.com/content/rant/gastax/
Besides the humor, you'll find the Brothers Magliozzi have a serious, logical, dare I say BRILLIANT fix for the transportation dilemma.
The US must get off foreign energy, principally oil, for security and defense cost reasons. Krugman argued we need a major stimulus, over $1 trillion, to get the economy anywhere near back where it was. Given these facts alone, a plan to replace the fossil fuel industry with a publicly built and owned renewable hydrogen energy refinery, distributuion and technology system makes great sense.
Some pundits argue the US should buy GM. This makes sense if Congress could order and control hydrogen energy (not fuel cell) transportation development in the public interest. What better way to explain to future generations that we were sorry for our mistakes, and made the best judgment we could to correct them for a safe, clean, economical energy tomorrow.
(1) The bond-holders are going to have to give up 70% of the value of their bond debt and accept stock equity for part of it
(2) the stock holders will be screwed by diluted stock
(3) pensions worked earned over 30 years of work will have to be cut in half and equity given for the rest. How many seniors living on $1200 a month do you know who could live on $600 a month tomorrow?
(4) Healthcare costs are a problem in every industry, but the fact the the unions require it for this industry makes it a problem. The rest of American workers have lost their healthcare in pinched businesses (or self-employed).
So, could you get all this done, everyone agreeing, in three months? I know I couldn't.
(5) The UAW will have to agree to substantial pay cuts for other workers, not just their new ones. [Note that I'm not bagging on unions. They should be a shield for American workers to make sure they have healthcare and aren't mistreated, but in this economy, they too must lose before winning.]
Could you get all this done in 3 months?
Double standard between employers & employees must end
One major theme [in Enron & Global Crossing scandals] - there are two sets of rules; executives get one set of rules and their employees have to play under a different set of rules. Employees have barriers to information, fewer options, more restrictions on investment, and no guaranteed returns. The most egregious disparity is that during a bankruptcy, executive pension plans are totally protected from creditors.
Dennis Kucinich on Principles & Values : Aug 1, 2003
Sacrificed political career to save city utility ownership
Kucinich was elected mayor on a promise that he would not sell off or privatize the beloved and trusted city-owned power system, though Cleveland was deeply in debt. By holding to his campaign promise and putting principle above politics, he lost his re-election bid and his political career was derailed. But today Kucinich stands vindicated for having confronted the Enron of his day, and for saving the municipal power company.
Stop corporate welfare
http://www.ontheissues.org/News_Corporate_Welfare.htm
1. http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081215_rep_dennis_kucinich_on_his_battle_with_the_banks/
Titled: Rep. Dennis Kucinich on His Battle With the Banks
2. http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/construction_and_property/article3422322.ece
Titled: Cleveland: ghost town created by America’s loan scandal
"Cleveland’s mayor Frank Jackson knows who to blame: Wall Street. The mayor’s office is suing some of the world’s biggest banks. including Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and Royal Bank of Scotland’s Greenwich Capital, claiming they acted like organised criminals financing the sale of products that they knew could do nothing but harm to Cleveland. Sub-prime mortgages have proved as bad as drugs in the destruction they have wrought on the community, he said."
They just want money and power. They don't care what happens to people.
it makes so much sense that it should be presented to Obama ASAP
put unemployed Americans to work making renewable energy sources for America's future
America first, American people first, not American companies
no matter what happens, renewable energy should be free for all Americans
we pay taxes, we can put tax money into wind power and solar,
why would be then turn around, hand it to some greedy corporate type who will then charge us for this renewable energy that we paid for
it's not completely free, there would of course have to be rules, such as max usage per household and such but there is no reason we should pay for renewable energy for basic and daily usage
American people first, all the corporate types who have been reaping the rewards of the common man can find somewhere else to roost
And please don't tell me government can't efficiently handle this, American corporate greed has shown repeatedly they don't care about people, only money and power
There's a waiting list for small hybrids, i.e. Prius. Detroit's answer? A hybrid Escalade. That's like serving Big Macs at an Iron Chef competition.
Let the car companies collapse, pump the billions into unemployment and school benefits. Straighten out national health care. Many line workers make expert wages for manual labor, time to wake up.
Why are auto companies asking for more money than their float? Geez - even if we go back a few years...