give me the money and ill invest it back into the economy, instead of throwing it into the burning pile of money

Good riddance to 'em!
 

They built crappy products, lost their market share, and poof, the government runs/owns 'em. What a laugh.

It is probably out of fear but I think it's out of fear for the nation's or at least's the rust belt's economy. As has been discussed GM's complete meltdown would have far-reaching consequences, though probably not as severe as the meltdown of Wall Street which was saved by the govt as well.

You can't create wealth just by printing money. If you gave everyone a million dollars, you'd create a shock wave of inflation and shortages, not much else. As usual, things are not as simple as some like to believe.

On the budget side, not much has changed, I'll give you that, at least for now. But I understand that balancing the budget can't always be the #1 priority.

No truer words have been posted on this forum in quite some time.

I can't help but wonder just how many threads here that line could actually apply to.

no, the problem is with idiots in Detroit...the chosen ones, so they believed....not!!! that day is (has been) over and now it's time to pay the piper....watch what happens here...this should be fresh. I find myself both
sad (because of all of the turmoil this is sure to create in countless lives) and happy (because this may free us in America from this belief that we are always the best, in everything..always). We have to get over this self proclomated view of ourselves and I think this will help that towards that
end.

I haven’t read this thread.

Has anyone read an analysis of the implications of the union holding a dominant ownership stake in 2 US auto companies? This seems an inherent conflict of interest that will serve to discourage some of the current labor practices and to ultimately put labor at a greater disadvantage – for the same reason labor has always been at a disadvantage – to permit raising profits by squeezing labor. Except now it is the union that can benefit from increased pressure – on their own membership!

It could be the beginning of the end for the UAW and usher in a new era of anti-union practices.

Has anyone found a study on this?

Doubt we'd get that lucky. The only auto unions I'm aware of that were ever effectively broken were the british ones that were broken by a conservative prime minister with the balls to bust them, metaphorically speaking of course. Here you have a government with a majority interest in the company, in bed with the unions and no reason why they wont simply keep bailing them out down the road.

- Peter.

Its not the unions who decided what products to build and market...nor what materials to put in the cars....nor what design each car would have.

It wasn't that long ago that these car companies were making over a billion a quarter. They can be profitable again, if they can look to the future instead of relying on the principles that got them into this mess. This should have been a wake up call, guess we'll see if they just roll over and hit snooze.

t. while you are correct with the fact that the unions didn't design or okay the materials used (am paraphrasing). The unions did increase labor cost and hence added to the total cost of the car/truck/whatever. And sorry to say I belive the union fosters laziness. I worked in a union run place and the workers were so freaking lazy. I got yelled at for "working too hard".

OK. So what has changed besides some faces in Congress and in the White House? I haven't noticed any changes in my life where it was more complex before the govt helped and now it is simpler and better without some sort of price we pay at the end.

It was the unions that had an indirect effect by making the cost of each car $2000 more because it was built in a union shop vs across the road by Mitsu, Yoda, etc, etc. $2000 is a huge hurdle to overcome when you consider the "bread and butter" cars. Now if we are talking Maybach, sure. On a 15K car, it is huge.

Problem is that while they were profitable, they were steadily losing market share. This economy accelerated their demise a little faster. Sooner or later, it would have come to this. I mean, how can you continue to be profitable when you are losing market share on a daily basis?