Bailouts and ducks, part 2

With roughly $2 trillion in bailouts (and counting) it's really time to consider if another US auto industry bailout is really a prudent course of action. $25-50 billion is a lot to give to corporations that spend so much time trying to screw the public over. I can't think of very many experiences at a car dealership that makes people say, "Wow, I had such a great time there. The service was excellent, they processed everything quickly, and I got my car a a steal! I thought they were going to pay me to take it away! Plus, this new model gets 1,000,000 miles per gallon and will never break down!"

Nowadays though, they may want you to take it away so they can make an insurance claim.

I remember going into a dealership and looking at a Jeep. I had a young salesman who kept saying, "all you have to do is put gas and oil into her and she'll keep running forever!" OK, I get the gas part, after all, it is a Jeep and they drink gas like Rush Limbaugh pops pills, but what's with the oil? Do Jeeps inherently just eat oil? Doesn't that mean something is wrong with the car? Worn out pistons, rings, seals, or maybe a leak? Maybe it's just the old timers who gave him a load of bullshit that "works like a charm" on all the "suckers" who walk into the dealership.

I've also looked at Mustangs. The Ford dealership said all the GTs were sold so there were none to test drive. That part is okay, I mean, I wouldn't want some jerk driving my new car. The problem was the next bit of info the salesman told me: "We'll be getting next year's model in in a few months. You can have one of those. It's $35,000 ($5,000 over sticker) if you decide to take one today. If you wait you can't have one, 'cause it'll be gone." So I said, "you want me to buy a car without even test driving it?" At this point another guy, who I'm guessing was the manager, said, "Nobody gets a test drive. Either you buy the car or you don't"

I bought a Lexus a week later. They were shitty too, just not as...

There's a reason that the Big Three in Detroit are suffering: the make lousy cars. It's like the Apple commercial where PC is divvying up money into two piles, a gigantic one for marketing, and tiny one for development. The Big Three spend enormous amounts on advertising but put out cars with horse and buggy style leaf spring suspensions. Instead of modern overhead cams they use archaic pushrods that wheeze asthmatically. Fuel efficiency? Forget it! you'll get mileage worse than a 100 year old Model T and you'll like it, and that's on they're so called "green" cars!

The US automakers don't need a bailout, they need to get their act together, and another "loan" that they won't payback, again, won't fix the real problems. If the majority of the leaders, including CEOs, CFOs, Chairmen, Presidents, Senior VPs, Junior VPs, Directors, Controllers, and various other upper management were replaced by guys like Elon Musk or Nikola Tesla we wouldn't have issues with the auto makers. We'd have cars that work properly, last forever, don't pollute, and don't smell bad. Besides,

WOULDN'T A GOVERNMENT BACKED BAILOUT OF GM USED TO MERGE GM AND CHRYSLER VIOLATE FEDERAL ANTITRUST LAWS???!!!

Now maybe I'm wrong about this, but, with all the talk about these companies being "too big to fail", doesn't that put them in a position of power that the antitrust laws were written to prevent? Antitrust laws, aside from preventing things like price fixing, price discrimination, monopolization, and the like are there to protect the public from very wealthy people from having too much control over a commodity or service and thereby having widespread power to do all manner of egregious harm to the public, financially or otherwise. That is the key spirit in which antitrust laws were put into place way back in 1890.

The current state of affairs on Wall Street, by federal mandate, has burst the dam that held back the wash of greed waiting behind protective concrete. To bring this to the auto industry is madness. It means that one of the world's greatest legal achievements is being torn to shreds by the government that was once threatened with a coup by the institutions it now intends to turn into monopolies. Rockefeller's descendants are surely popping open the bubbly! Maybe Standard Oil will make it's return!

It would appear the Business Plot of 1933 has found a more insidious way of seeing it's plans to fruition over the years. Fascism can't be too far behind. Well, if McCain wins anyway.

It is duck season by the way. Go exercise you Second Amendment rights. If enough people do, maybe the only quacking we'll ever have to hear is from real ducks. The government should respect and work for the people, and we should never have to fear the government. Ever.