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.

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15 Responses to “The auto bailout”

  1. Melinda Says:

    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.

  2. Al Billings Says:

    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.

  3. Mark Williams Says:

    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…

  4. David Williams Says:

    @ 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).

  5. David J. Williams » Blog Archive » Economy, meet wall Says:

    […] we start spending money on shit that will actually be useful when the money’s […]

  6. Kimbo Says:

    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.

  7. Raoul Says:

    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???

  8. Michelle Says:

    I love David Jeffrey poems. Are there anymore out there?? Who is David Jeffrey?

  9. Jesse Says:

    I’d like to subscribe via google reader but not sure how to do that. Can you explain please?

  10. D. Sanchez Says:

    I love this poem about the Bailout 2008

    David Jeffrey is awesome!

  11. D. Sanchez Says:

    I love David Jeffrey poems

  12. Alotta Vagena Says:

    I love this Bailout 2008 poem

    and I love David Jeffrey

    David Jeffrey rocks

  13. Bruno Says:

    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

  14. Bruno Says:

    I said it before and I’ll say it again, mmmmmmmmm I love butter tarts. Did Kevin spend these ‘loans’ wisely?

  15. Aputsiaq Ruuben Says:

    Soap and breeding are not as fulminant as a mow down, but they are more toxic in the far run.