Auto companies: “Brother can you spare $7 million?”

By -史蒂夫 奥托

The big three auto makers have come to Washington to ask for a handout. What do we owe to these people and their long history of making the US more dependant on foreign oil? This is the same industry that bought up a lot of our mass transit systems and deliberately destroyed them so this country would become dependent on buying autos.
Out so called “love affair with the auto” has always had a huge price tag. Almost a quarter of our economy is dependent on car or truck ownership of some kind. Our government waist more resources on roads than most other industrialized countries since we have such scant mass transportation in the US.
The auto industry conned the public into buying huge gas guzzlers. As the price of gas skyrocketed, those big vehicles became a money vacuum to their owners. These companies made money hand over fist. They gorged out on the public until the prices brought people back to reality. The car companies acted as if gas was so plentiful, we’d never run out. Now that we are running out, they the put too much money into oversized vehicles, and had no back up plan for smaller, more efficient cars. Now they want the taxpayer to bail them out.
The Republicans are jumping on the populist “don’t bail them out” bandwagon. That is all grandstanding since they know the bailout will go through, eventually. Today, National Public Radio (NPR) reported that Republicans are now pushing for lower workers wages before they will agree to a bail out. The Republicans have now uncovered their true nature, which is to strike at workers and their unions before they will save the big auto companies.
To let the car industry die would affect too much of this economy. It would only hastened the decline that is already setting in from rising “peak oil” prices and the new recession.
We have a capitalist system, so we will end up having to pay these modern day robber barons while the rest of us get no help at all from the government to pay our bills. The individuals are of little importance to the politicians of today.