GM Bailout, What's everyone's take? Options

[blu94gt]

So what does everyone here think of the US government bailing out GM with X billion dollars?

I think it's just plain silly. I do agree that if GM were to go under that roughly 3 million jobs could be lost, and would be a huge hurt to our economy. Realistically though, if they go under then Chrysler and/or Ford or someone else will just absorb them and take control. It's called FREE MARKET, if your business can't make it then you close your doors, the government shouldn't be involved at all. GM obviously can't make a quality car that people want to buy, can't figure out how to not get screwed by the labor unions, and drop all their money into silly projects like the Volt. Plus they waste all kinds of money selling the same exact cars under 4 different brands. Buick Rainer, Chevy Trailblazer, GMC Envoy, Saab 9-7x are all EXACTLY the same with different grilles and lights. What purpose does this serve other than wasting a whole bunch of money in having several different toolsets and suppliers? (all American companies do this, I've never been able to figure it out). Not to mention separate markets around the world.

So say the government bails out GM. They need to then supervise every financial move GM makes down to where they have a lunch meeting, require them to make eco-friendly cars or something like that, loosen the grip of the union, etc. Also to re-brand everything: Cadillac for luxury, Chevy for cars, GMC for trucks. Completely get rid of Pontiac and Saturn. After a few years of this setup, unify the US market lineup with the world market lineup of vehicles. Hopefully Ford and Chrysler would follow suit, I think they would all benefit.

In the end, I hope they don't get bailed out and are allowed to fail.

[forkee]

you want to get rid of people's car options? that doesn't really sound like a free market

free market means no monopolies

decrease the amount of choices and the remaining companies get to set the price to whatever they want

im with you on the bail out though. i dont think the government should bail out anyone. besides the money comes out of our pockets. any type of government plan that pumps more money into the economy is a big mistake. despite dropping gas prices, inflation is inevitable.

[blu94gt]

you want to get rid of people's car options? that doesn't really sound like a free market

free market means no monopolies

decrease the amount of choices and the remaining companies get to set the price to whatever they want

im with you on the bail out though. i dont think the government should bail out anyone. besides the money comes out of our pockets. any type of government plan that pumps more money into the economy is a big mistake. despite dropping gas prices, inflation is inevitable.

I don't want to get rid of their options, but there's a lot of needless spending to manufacture these cars that aren't very different from each other (if at all). The economics wouldn't change because they're all part of GM, there just wouldn't be so many of the same car on the road. Just like when they got rid of Oldsmobile, or Chrysler got rid of Plymouth, I propose the exact same change. GM is moving towards it when they started putting a GM badge on every car a couple years ago.