BlackLiberalBoomer

I posted this last Friday at my Detroit-focused “DSpot Redeux” blog…because I feel that the auto companies are really getting a raw deal concerning getting a $25B loan while financial companies are receiving hundreds of billions in out-and-out bailouts. The Congress and President-elect Obama are right for asking for a plan from the Big Three (and it was STUPID for the auto execs to appear before Congress with empty hands outstretched…), but now that Citigroup is the latest financial company to receive $350 BILLION without having to go through the drubbing that GM, Ford, and Chrysler had to endure. Citigroup didn’t have to go before Congress at all…and this is their second bailout in as many months…no questions asked…no plan for the future…no embarrassment…

OK, so the auto execs should’ve thought twice about going to Washington in separate $20K/trip corporate jets. Of course the auto companies need to change a lot of things about their business model. But is anyone thinking about not just the “rich guys at the top” but the millions upon millions of blue-collar workers and retirees who depend on the auto companies for their livelihood? What about the millions of auto-related jobs with small businesses around the country who depend on the auto companies? What about all of the other small businesses that will fail because they won’t have any customers? Why punish all of them because of what the bigwigs did or didn’t do?

Raise your hand if you have a family member who works now, or who is retired from one of the Big Three or a related company. Raise your other hand if that family member bought a house, raised a family, donated to charity, sent their kids to college, and just basically lived the American life by keeping the American economy going. Now, put down one or both hands if that family never ever made a mistake throughout life. See all of those hands raised?

The auto companies are asking for a “bridge loan”; the re-tooling for the future starts next fall–the plans are already in place. The unions have cut their wages and benefits to the bone. Huge world-wide companies can’t change overnight, but changes are coming.

But because of vengefulness, short-sightedness, and frankly, elitism on the part of Republicans in Congress–yes the same ones who spend $10 BILLION a MONTH in Iraq–the white-collar financial companies got their bailout, but the blue-collar auto companies can’t get a loan without rancor and vitriol.

Meanwhile, Nissan has pulled out of exhibiting at both the Detroit and Chicago Auto Shows (bad for the economies of both cities), and Toyota, Honda, and other “foreign” car companies have acres and acres of new cars sitting on the dock in San Diego because they can’t even be delivered to the dealers who can’t sell cars because of the credit crunch and mismanagement brought on by: THE BAILED-OUT-WITH-NO-QUESTIONS FINANCIAL COMPANIES!

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