The auto bailout
Letting the Big Three go bankrupt would crater what’s left of the economy and reduce the midwest to a sea of rusted iron. Allowing them to continue to make cars is insane. Injunctions to retool the whole output to making green cars are going to lead to an awful lot of eco-friendly hybrids sitting around looking idle. No one’s got the money to buy anything anymore.
Except, of course, the government. So . . just as the automakers retooled during wartime to produce tanks and munitions, now they should be retooled to produce Shit We Actually Need, like high-speed rail infrastructure, shitloads of windmills, clean mass transit, etc. I’d also like to see Rick Wagoner run over by an SUV on pay-per-view TV, but you and I both know he’ll get a big bonus to fuck off instead. As long as he keeps the hell away from Detroit, that’s okay with me.
November 24th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
The best way to get out of a recession is for the government to spend on infastructur. Your idea is, therefore, exactly what should be done. The very practicality of your plan ensures that it will never happen.
November 25th, 2008 at 1:49 am
Can I have a working (and then fast) train system that goes throughout the US? How about one for humans?
Even riding up and down the West Coast from Seattle to Oakland, one of my friends has been repeatedly up to 16 hours late because human trains are shunted behind freight in priority, making it a pretty non-viable system if you are, say, employed.
November 25th, 2008 at 6:27 am
a more disturbing facet of this is the Far Right’s willingness to let the big three go bankrupt in order to teach the unions an example. Progressive may have seized the high ground but the war goes on…
November 25th, 2008 at 9:50 am
@ Melinda- i think Obama envisions Green being incorporated into the economy, but I wonder if/doubt he’ll go far enough.
@Al: it’s amazing, isnt it? The U.S. is in some ways ideal terrain for a super high-speed rail network, and we could not be less on it.
@ MarK– amazing how the Far Right worships the Invisible Hand when it’s an automaker, and can’t wait to sweep it aside when it’s their friends’ bank(s).
November 26th, 2008 at 10:28 am
[…] we start spending money on shit that will actually be useful when the money’s […]
December 6th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Bailout 2008, a poem by David Jeffrey:
Like a bloodied warrior,
laying broken and torn.
Like a dying soldier, hopeless and forlorn.
But the blood, it be green,
the color of money.
And the soldier is an economy,
and it is anything but funny.
Broken are it’s people and shattered are their dreams.
Thanks to the ultra rich and their full proof schemes.
It is a tragedy with more pain to come.
Finance will be Hell, and their wills will be done.
December 11th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
that is an awesome poem. And this whole situation is disaster. I was proud that America was a picture of capitalism and free enterprise. I can’t recall bailouts when you are stupid and arrogant and run crappy companies as being part of Capitalism. What ever happened to survival of the fittest???
April 21st, 2009 at 11:29 pm
I love David Jeffrey poems. Are there anymore out there?? Who is David Jeffrey?
April 22nd, 2009 at 2:47 pm
I’d like to subscribe via google reader but not sure how to do that. Can you explain please?
May 12th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
I love this poem about the Bailout 2008
David Jeffrey is awesome!
May 12th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
I love David Jeffrey poems
July 24th, 2009 at 1:30 am
I love this Bailout 2008 poem
and I love David Jeffrey
David Jeffrey rocks
August 5th, 2009 at 3:59 pm
I LOVE THAT Bailout 2008 POEM by David Jeffrey. DOES ANYONE OUT THERE KNOW WHERE I CAN GET MORE OF HIS WORK? DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW I CAN FIND THIS BUTTER TART? MMMMMMM BUTTER TART
August 19th, 2009 at 10:18 am
I said it before and I’ll say it again, mmmmmmmmm I love butter tarts. Did Kevin spend these ‘loans’ wisely?
February 15th, 2010 at 1:50 am
Soap and breeding are not as fulminant as a mow down, but they are more toxic in the far run.