Well, execs from the Big Three have private-jetted & limoed up to the Capitol & are holding out their gold-plated begging bowls to Congress, in search of another $25B in bail-out money (in addition to the $25B they got a few months ago to revamp their production line to build autos the public actually might want to, you know, buy) from we-the-people.
As you might imagine, this absolutely eats my lunch.
It is a mark of their arrogance that these [insert plural expletive here] have the unmitigated nerve to explain with straight faces that they deserve the next several billions because if they go belly up (which is the entirely predictable result of their business decisions & strategies for 20 years & more), thousands—maybe millions—will lose their jobs. & we can’t let that happen, can we?
Naturally, they assure us, they’re only in this pickle because of the general state of the economy, which wasn’t their fault. They’re the victims in this, just like all the other regular guys they down beers with at the local tavern.
It’s especially rich that they use the loss of tens of thousands of jobs as the major rationale for the bail-out, when they’ve been doing everything in their power over the past 30 years to screw the workers whose jobs they haven’t yet managed to off-shore.
(They were actually joined today by Ron Gittelfinger, president of the UAW, who is also acting like he's on Queen for a Day. He prates about how the current state of affairs isn't the automakers' or unions' fault for living in the cloud cuckooland of the past, but just that darn economy. You just have to wonder if any of these buffoons are stupid enough to believe what they're saying, or just hope that we are.)
Pelosi has been making noises like giving them what they want, although at today’s hearings senators on both sides of the aisle at least discomfited the heterotrophs in the $6K suits.
I really hope Congress draws the line at handing out our cash like Monopoly money to every Fortune 1000 company that shows up at their door with a sad story & crocodile tears. & in this case if they can’t refrain from acting like Crazy Uncle Louie, at least make sure there’s a whole yarn-factory-load of strings attached. No, not strings—I want enough bleedin’ steel cable wrapped around these companies to cover Africa with a T-1 network.
What strings you ask? Like specifying a REALISTIC business plan for cost-cutting & retooling to make cars people want to buy & drive. (= cut out the gas guzzlers; shut down Hummer; stop fighting the dreaded mileage requirements) & then FOLLOWING the plan.
A basic requirement is that top management is out (without huge severance deals—the CEO of Chrysler got a severance package of $210MM when he left Home Depot a few years ago—what the hell does he know about belt-tightening, or even restraint?) & be replaced with people who aren't tied to the current way of doing things.
Management salaries go down (as part of that cost-cutting thing) & bonuses are strictly tied to actual, you know, performance. Their propensity for international travel booked & rebooked at the last minute goes, because they’d be introduced to the joys of video conferencing. These guys don’t seem to have joined the late 20th Century—their tech mentality is as outdated as the cars they produce
Oh—& their assets are on the line as collateral. If they don't perform, we the people get to take over the assets & start selling them off. There's no WAY we should give any of them money without securing the loan; they haven't shown themselves capable of managing their money (or, more accurately, their stakeholders’)—why would we think they'll do better with ours?
I'm acutely aware that there are indeed millions directly & indirectly affected by the Big Three’s problems. It's not just their employees, but their suppliers, & the suppliers of raw materials; it's dealers; it's people who clean the dealerships & supply them with coffee & pencils...
But why should it be that if you're HUGE & act like complete idiots over a period of YEARS we'll bail you out, but if you're a small business & you blow it, you're on your own? If one auto company gets so much as a nickel, not one bloody person with a V or a C in their title gets a raise or a bonus for the next 18 months, & after that, only if there's progress. They have absolutely no incentive whatsoever to change what they're doing.
Flushing my tax dollars down after what they've already lost is only going to delay the inevitable. If they're going to keep on screwing up, it's better to get it over with—a clean kill instead of the painful, wasting illness they’ve been carrying for decades.
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