Bailing Out the Big Three - Why reward Detroit (and punish taxpayers) for making unprofitable cars?

2008 was an apocalyptic year for the American car industry, with sales of Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler cars all falling by 25 percent. Supporters of the Big Three automakers argue that the government needs to provide Detroit with at least $50 billion in taxpayer money in order to save the American car industry, on top of the billions of federally subsidized loans they've already received. President Barack Obama agrees, having attacked John McCain during last year's presidential campaign for opposing a bailout of Detroit.

But while many commenters and union advocates paint Detroit's economic troubles as a consequence of the financial crisis, necessitating its inclusion in the bailout sweepstakes, the financial troubles of the Big Three long predated the current mess. Indeed, in 2007, GM sold more cars and trucks than Toyota. Yet Toyota made almost $2,000 per vehicle while GM lost more than $1,000. So why does the United Auto Workers union and President Obama want taxpayers to reward Detroit—and punish her competitors—for making unprofitable cars?

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• auto
• bailout
• industry
• big
• three
• stimulus
• cars
• profit
• obama

[Kenneth1944]

Obama stole $750 billions from the poor, to give to the bankers and auto execs.

[AKlover]

Did you listen to the video? It makes 0 since to pay someone nearing $75 dollars per hour to do a job someone will happily do for $20. You cannot be competitive as a company if your labor costs double or triple your competition's labor.

Repeal the law.

Force a strike or cut costs.

Replace with realistic labor force.

There is a GM factory 10 miles from where I live, it becomes obvious a trained monkey can do the job most of them do.

Union = Parasitic organized laziness

[flammnkta]

Taxpayers are paying for the big three new cars.

[FRSFreeStateNow]

The reason why we bailed out Detroit because we would've been in danger of losing an additional 1M jobs had we not. And made a horrible Economy even worse. Its really that simple.

[finallytherock]

@390merc65 Who told you Japan was not letting U.S. automakers build cars there? Or export our cars there? The WTO shows Japan only putting tariffs on military equipment. The U.S. on the other hand is tariffing trucks and SUV's from Japan. Just because the UAW told you something does not mean you should not look into it.

[heavyrunner9]

How much of the $75 per hour is health care cost, which is borne by the taxpayers in other countries, and, due to the efficiency of single-payer, is about half of what health care costs are here in the USA? I am guessing that it is close to the $25 difference in hourly cost argued in this video.

[MarkMillionaireGuru]

Hi ReasonTV

I have just been watching your video and I must admit it really is very good.

I really enjoyed watching it.

Already looking forward to more of the same in the future.

Cheers to your success.

Mark McCulloch

[390merc65]

just what we need ..kick our nieghbors in the ass and look the other way ,,and open our shores to a bunch of foreigners

..i guess most americans wont be happy untill we are working for the japs...if we open our shore to be invaded by japan and think they are so great , then why doesnt the jap government open its shore to the U.S auto makers then?..japan wont let the big3 set foot on japan soil to build cars..so we should inflict a high tax on the japan auto industrie's here on our soil

[dvsuton]

I have had more problems with my Toyota (broken camshafts, warping rotors, sludged engines) and my Honda (2 transmissions, window motors, dvd players) than I ever had with any American car i ever owned. Boy, those Japs and the hillbilly's making those Japanese cars are really doing a great job. My ASS!

[haloslayer78965]

screw toyota they aint american

[rooftopeagle]

yeah, no big difference in engineering of my Toyota vs a gm car is clear. My old 2001 Chevy cost me more to buy and more to maintain and only lasted until 2006, my 2000 toyota is running strong, cost me less to buy and hasn't had a major failure since I bought it in 2006. in the 5 years I had that Chevy I put 1k+ into it 4 times to keep it on the road....I say there is a big difference in engineering and quality!