Forget GM… Small Businesses Should Get Bailout
November 18, 2008 by ShannonCherry
Filed under Business
I understand why the car companies need want a bailout. And certainly their new video is compelling. (How much did that one cost ya’ GM? Could you have saved a few hundred thousand dollars by not having a PR firm whip it up for you? Take a look at the video below and tell me what you think!)
But does that money really make a difference to a large corporation that will probably go under anyway? Or would the money be better spent elsewhere?
Perhaps by providing a small business stimulus package to millions of small businesses that employ the majority of people in the US? Perhaps give some money for the SBA to guarantee more small business loans? Perhaps help them provide affordable health care to staff?
For decades, the automakers and their employees have tried to game the system in various ways. There are several companies who have successfully re-organized including Delta Airlines. The major problem is that the automakers and the UAW do not want to suffer the consequences nor do they want the “rules of the game” to change.Going through Bankruptcy reorganization does not mean that the automakers will go out of business anymore than Delta went out of business provided that they are willing to do what it takes to reorganize.
Refusal to change is what caused the Rust Belt and is what caused the failure of Eastern Airlines. It is time that Unions and Corporations both learn that “You can’t always get what you want – but if you try real hard you just might find, you get what you need.”
Don’t bail them out, make them work at surviving and adjusting. Why should the taxpayers be penalized for someone else’s stubborn refusal to adapt?
I agree with Jim. The automakers have been squashing technological advances and force feeding us unsafe cars that just guzzle gas. Foreign automakers can come here, set up a plant, pay competitive wages yet still romp all over those fools. Now they want us to bail them out and allow them to continue the same old same old? Ironically, had American auto manufacturers done the right thing, they could have blown the competition out of the water. It is not like the circumstances they now find themselves in appeared overnight. Rather, they counted on all those campaign contributions and lobbying efforts paying off when they played the too big to fail card. Now it is time to let them pay dearly for their shoddy business practices, pampering union greed, and inferior products.
The government just can’t bailout everyone who runs to them for money! The Big Three automakers have long been making huge mistakes, and we can’t reward them for their mistakes. A repayable loan and a secured position (seize assets) in the interest of taxpayers if they go bellup makes more sense to me.