Do you think government should be bailing out corporations?

[watcher1]

When the government began this so-called bail out of the financial and now the automotive industry, do you think they should pick and choose what company receives their bail out and what company should be left to fail?
To me, anyway, this pick and choose bailout smells like a typical insider deal where the powerful get to tell the government and us taxpayers, make me survive but let my competitor fail.
And how come the government is telling the automotive industry that they have to shape up before they can receive any more money, but in most cases, the big banks operate business as usual, with little or no oversight?
These are just a few questions that have been nagging at me while I read, daily, what we taxpayers have to pony up to allow the fat cats of industry their continued life of luxury.

[Circ]

[watcher1]

LOL - You almost have to wonder if that is what they actually do,  Instead of throwing a headless chicken, they just throw a dart, because, remember, these are very educated and civilized men and women.

[clipclop]

When the government began this so-called bail out of the financial and now the automotive industry, do you think they should pick and choose what company receives their bail out and what company should be left to fail?
To me, anyway, this pick and choose bailout smells like a typical insider deal where the powerful get to tell the government and us taxpayers, make me survive but let my competitor fail.
And how come the government is telling the automotive industry that they have to shape up before they can receive any more money, but in most cases, the big banks operate business as usual, with little or no oversight?
These are just a few questions that have been nagging at me while I read, daily, what we taxpayers have to pony up to allow the fat cats of industry their continued life of luxury.

I am against the bailout unless the government decides to totally take over the companies as the controlling shareholder...I bet the money wouldn't seem so good to them if that happened. Imagine if Donald Rumsfeld was running GM! On second thought, that's too scary...he'd try to bomb Ford and Toyota.

[RopeFiend]

I wouldn't give 'em a red damned cent, ESPECIALLY when the CFOs of all 3 major auto companies came to Congress (hat in hand) IN THEIR PRIVATE JETS.

Yooo hoo!  Brain check!  When you're begging for cash, it's best to not flaunt your PRIVATE JETS, and maybe think about taking a commercial carrier.  You can go First Class.

ANY company that can afford a private jet (and the fuel, and the pilots, and the hanger space, and the maintenance guy(s), and the re-cert costs, and....) is perfectly allowed to file CHAPTER 11 Bankruptcy Protection.  That's what it's there for, so that they can re-structure WITHOUT a fucking bail-out.  Welcome to Amerika... socialist nation wannabe.

Frankly, if GM and Ford kick the bucket 'cos they're too stupid to do business here in the US, then they deserve it.  They should have moved their manufacturing out of those locations that the Unions controlled *long* ago.  From what I've read, roughly 28% of the cost of a car goes to various Union benefits (retirement, medical, etc).  Huh?  Any other company with sense would have busted the unions LONG ago, or pulled up stakes and headed to cheaper locales.  That's nothing but Business 101.

We shouldn't have given the banks a dime, either.  That set a HUGE bad precedent.  I hope Bush (and friends) smoke a turd in hell for that one, along with EVER member of Congress that approved it.  We handed 'em billions, and they rewarded themselves with bonuses and parties.  WTF is the public doing paying for bonuses for millionaires??  Is Congress totally brain-dead, or am I missing something?  They gave 'em the money with no strings attached, which was thoroughly idiotic.

[watcher1]

Unfortunately, RF, some of the same Democrats who didn't voice their oppostion to all this in its early stages are now the most vocal when it is serving them politically. Like having the foxes run the chicken coop and you know where that leaves us taxpayers. Two words that our political leaders need to study and learn - moral and ethical.

[RopeFiend]

"When you can learn to fake sincerity, you have a guaranteed career in politics"

Dunno who said that one originally, but it's sadly true.  We're WAAAYYYY overdue for a Palace Revolution.  Jefferson thought we ought to have one every 40 years to keep the scum in check and to slim down Government.  Too bad we didn't follow his advice, as it was rather patently a Good Idea.

[stefanwolf]

I dare just one of those big handed loafers to give me a million dollars.  I would see that it would be put to good use, stimulate the ecomony feed a bunch of people and put roofs over some friends heads.  Damn idiotic for me to even think they or congress even know what real America is like and how much their greed and ineptitude has cost us in lives, illness, respect and money.

[Grm]

These are unprecedented times, no one knows what policy will work. There is a furious debate among world economists as to the way out of this mess and it will only be judged by the future historians. But we are in a BIG mess and those that bury their heads are going to find that its going to bite them up the ass. Jobs are falling like autumn leaves and so it would take a brave politician to sit and do nothing. Whether we like it or not governments could not let the banks fail and so they had to be bailed out. Major corporations employing thousands of people like the car industry may also need propping up, of course they might still fail unless they can sell their products in something like their old quantities.

Like most people I have little faith in politicians, but we elected them so we get what we voted for, another bunch of head bangers. I look at the millions spent by governments on planning ans statistics as so much confetti. In the main they act like fire brigades, rushing from one crisis to another and its always the fires closest to the tabloid news that they will direct their hoses first.

[watcher1]

What is more distressing is the government, who barely can manage their own affairs, now telling corporations how to run theirs. Granted, some of the executives were inefficient, but having politicos calling the shots is downright scary. Most politicians are not businessmen.  Many are lawyers. Enough said.

[Grm]

I totally agree with you Watcher, we had nationalised industries in the UK for many years, they were almost always trading with losses and highly inefficient. But when they were sold off to private enterprise millions lost their jobs which took decades to come back mostly in the form of retail and services one of which ironically was banking. Lets not kid ourselves industry has and always will be intertwined with politics whether nationalised or not and governments have always interfered with the running of companies whenever it was expedient to them or there was a nice big back hander involved.