Author Alasdair White
It seems just possible that US politicians have realised that the solution to the economic crisis in the US should not include bailing out large organisations with a half-century of poor management practices, poor labour practices and high levels of contempt for clients and the environment. Yes, the US Senate has rejected the bailout of the US car industry and, in reality, the big three car makers (Ford, General Motors and Chrysler) should now apply for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection while they break up and start becoming modern businesses. The only regret is that the politicians didn’t feel the same way about the banks.
The result of the the car manufacturers going bankrupt will be very hard on the US economy and may well be catastrophic for some sectors and we can be certain that the US people will suffer, but it will be for the short term and the US economy will come out of the mess in a healthier state than ever before. Short-term pain for long-term gain – unless, of course, the politicians cobble together a fudge and commit the US to long-term inefficiency.
What was unedifying, however, was to see that the Democrat party has shown some of its true colours by pushing forward this faulty, fundamentally misconceived, bill. It would have been better for the Democrats and the president-elect, Barak Obama, if they had thought it through before declaring that they would bailout such inefficient industries. Equally unedifying was the spectacle of the Republican party rejecting the bill as a way of punishing the workers, and demanding that they take pay cuts. It would have been far better to have rejected the bill simply because it was wrong.
Posted in General Motors