Bailing out GM, Ford and Chrysler: it's easy to be dubious

Hey ! Lets bail out all the struggling firms so there's a reward for mismanagement of a company, it's a win win for all that overstretch in the so called free trade market....

I have been a Detroit Automotive Engineer for over 20 years. Let's get some facts corrected concerning the Auto industry in North America.
1) Honda, Toyota, Nissan, etc.. all build vehicles in the good old USA using USA labor, manufacturing, engineering & know how. The profits may go to Japan, Korea, or Germany, but the jobs do not necessarily all go overseas.
2) Intellectual Property. Toyota has a tech center in Ann Arbor, MI. They employee several thousand American engineers. Honda has a tech center in Marysville, OH. They employee several thousand American engineers. Nissan has a tech center in Farmington Hills, MI. They employee several thousand American engineers.
3) Auto Tiered Suppliers. The majority of Auto jobs are not with the OEM's - they are with the suppliers. Lear, Johnson Controls, Magna, and even Delphi (formally GM), and Visteon (formally Ford) each supply both the big 3 and the foreign OEM's with plants in the USA. These jobs do not go away. In many cases, these suppliers would be just as happy supplying Toyota rather than GM.
4) Very few technical people are involved with planning what the next generation vehicle will look like. Big 3 OEM Styling, Marketing & Executive teams typically pick the platform, target customers, etc.. then, engineers get to figure out how to design & build the insane goals they are handed.
I work for a major Tier 1 supplier that sells parts to the Big 3 and to Japanese, Korean, & German manufacturers. Today, I'd rather work on a Toyota or Honda project, than a Chrysler, GM, or Ford project. The Toyota or Honda projects are better managed, make more sense, and do not leave you scratching your head at the end of the day wondering why you had to design something that just did not make sense.
This has not always been the case. A decade ago, I'd much rather work on a Big 3 project as they made more sense that any overseas OEM project.
If we are discussing a bail out & an Big 3 Auto industry overhaul, let focus on shutting down the current method of new vehicle development & planning. Let's focus on actually listening to the American Auto technical folks about how to build vehicles.
Interestly, I believe the CEO's of the US Big 3 all have degrees and backgrounds in Finance. I believe the CEO's of the Japanese Big 3 all have either degrees or backgrounds of a technical nature. Henry Ford could build a Model T. Think today's US Big 3 CEO's would know how to change their own oil?

People seem to forget what happened in the late 60's, early 70's. I still remember the gas lines and people pushing their cars to the pumps to conserve fuel. Notwithstanding, auto makers continued making gas guzzlers because, they thought, that's what the market dictates. Sad to say, the Japanese were more practical, proactive, and right on target when they started to build smaller, fuel efficient, and reliable vehicles. They are now on top of the heap. Detroit is still resting on its laurels, has acted irresponsibly and now wants us, they say US, to bail them out. This country was built on hard work, good old yankee ingenuity, and honesty. Detroit has of late fallen short on all of this. They have dug their own hole. Let them dig themselves out! And by the way, engineers are TOLD what to design and build, management is solely responsible for the direction in which a business goes.

First of all, the car companies are asking for a LOAN, not a BAILOUT.
The Fiancial sector got a BAILOUT - handout, etc. No payback necessary - no need to fly to Washington to beg for money, just some phone calls to well-placed senators.
It got that way because of a lack of oversight on the government's part. The public is asking questions, and the senators are taking it out on Wagoner, Nardelli, and Mulally.
The current crisis with ALL of the automakers, Toyota and Honda included, is that potential leasing customers cannot get leases. This is a direct result of the financial market.
No manufacturing business with the supply chain complexity of the automotive industry; whether foreign or domestic, can withstand the kind of sales drop that was experienced this past year.
Also, does anyone remember the 'Keep America Rolling' zero percent financing that GM offered right after 9/11? That kept the American economy rolling in a major way. How quickly people forget.

Many homes and everday blue collar workin pple would be effected. First and formost my family would be effected. My dad would lose his job and my stay at home mom would have to go working at some housekeeping job. College would be almost impossible for me to afford. I say since we are bailing out everyone else y not bail out gm,for and chrysler also bailout pple how are going thru forclosers.

It is really simple, let the oil companies spend some of their tens of billions of QUARTERLY profit dollars to bail out the companies that are helping to make them rich.

I am for the bailout...especially after hearing the sound bytes from the Congressional testimony. Since when is taking away benefits and pay from auto workers a good thing? Maybe Toyota doesn't pay enough. GM can be faulted for a lot bad strategic moves as can Ford and Chrysler. Everyone was saying GM should have aggressively moved in hybrids years before it did. That's true, but we shouldn't let GM, its its workforce and those connected to it go down. There's a huge price to be paid for that. I say this as one from a state that has very little connection to the auto industry (Mass.)

I say let them fail. Look at the bright side. Less people buy cars because they are unemployeed. Less cars are sold. Less cars are manufactured. Less carbon pollution to contribute to the climate crisis. Before you know it we will be below 1990 levels just in time to save the planet. Of course we will need to drastically change our lifestyles. But hey, that is better than a global catastrophe - is it not? Perhaps more of us should go back to agriculture; it is becoming more clear that industrialization was not a very good idea.

What Congress, the Senate, and the President are arguing about is whether or not 10 million more Americans will lose their jobs and whether or not this country will maintain any manufacturing capability at all. If we lose 10 million jobs the loss of commerce will cost us 10 million more jobs and affect foreign companies and the ability of people to eat in 3rd world countries.
The unemployment costs to the taxpayers, should they fail to provide our automakers loans, will exceed $200 billion per year. Aside from all of the other issues that these armchair automakers are trying to cloud the issue with, it definitely is a no-brainer so, even these people should not be having this much trouble making a decision.
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#1 GO BK
#2 RE-ORG & DROP THE UNIONS
#3 USE TOYOTA & HONDA AS A TEMPLATE
#4 LEARN TO VALUE YOUR CUSTOMERS
#5 FOCUS ON GREEN...GREEN...GREEN!
#6 GM & FORD DON'T DESERVE TO BE REWARDED FOR BAD PREFORMANCE

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Every manufacturer makes the products that are
most profitable. When conditions change he revises his products. GM should not be criticized for making the profitable large cars.
They are an invaluable asset of our country.