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.

[playr158]

Bailing out all these companies is BS...let **** hit the fan so we can start reconstruction already...

I'm not sure where you learned your economics from, but if you just let all the companies drop the ball we can go from a slow sloping recession to a fast one. That can cause other normal companies that are thriving normally to go under with no reason.

so in your economics, throwing money at the problem works? no that leads to MORE problems. GM is FAR from keeping our economy alive...let it fail if it fails, if the corporation can get their act together and correct the business itself then all the better.