Comments on: Bush to Taxpayers: “I don’t need no stinking law to spend your money.”

By: Mr. ToughMoneyLove

Mr. ToughMoneyLove — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 17:51:57 +0000

Andrea and MasterPo: Unfortunately, the Big Three’s reputation for poor quality (as compared to Japan) was made during the 80’s and 90’s and they have struggled ever since to overcome it.

PW: Agreed – the legacy costs are huge. Bankruptcy would eliminate that problem for GM but may end up passing a lot of it on to the taxpayers.

By: MasterPo

MasterPo — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 05:29:57 +0000

Andrea – That’s very true.

But that aside, what stopped the big 3 from seeing the market trend that people wanted smaller and more efficient cars? This has been going on for 25 years at least!

And there’s the reliability issue too. True or not there is a very great perception that American cars are just not as reliable and well made as say Toyota. The peelijng pain on the Jeep Cherokee is a great example. Jeep blamed it on acid rain. But no other car company had that problem. And it wasn’t a one or two year model problem – it was all Cherokees!

They had their head in the sand.

By: PW

PW — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 19:56:04 +0000

I heard that GM has approximately 96,000 active employees.They pay pensions,benefits etc.for well over 1,000,000.Therefore GM is an old aged home that is trying to produce cars!!

By: Andrea

Andrea — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 15:46:26 +0000

MP – I can’t remember where I read it, but recently I saw an article that defended the American auto makers a bit because they have to bear some expenses that Japanese automakers get to skip, which makes “our” cars more expensive and leaves less money for innovation and design. I don’t know much about the auto industry so can’t really comment on how true that is, but it was an interesting thought.

By: MasterPo

MasterPo — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 05:12:45 +0000

Bailing out the big 3 – regardless of who is in the White House – is a big mistake. They are dinosaurs on life support.

Even with TARP money and government oversight (what a joke! government clowns telling the autos how to run their busines?! when did ‘humor’ become national policy??!!) they will fail. They don’t make good cars. As long as we have the freedom to choose the products we buy they will continue to slide in market share.

Even if I was forced to buy a hybrid or electric (it is very possible for the gov to do this!) I’d probably buy a Toyota or Hyundi instead.

By: Andrea

Andrea — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 19:45:45 +0000

Edit, that first sentence should read “Bush’s actions over the last several years that have demonstrated a disregard for the United States.”

Had a toddler getting into a cupboard mid thought …

By: Andrea

Andrea — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 19:43:24 +0000

This is far from the first or most egregious example of Mr. Bush’s actions over the last several years. For the most part, I don’t think it’s arrogant or oblivious, it’s quite calculated to see how much people will take. Remember that the first bailout granted Paulson complete immunity from any kind of oversight or review, which didn’t fly … but even the fact that it was ATTEMPTED is telling.

Of course, at this point, it’s not really about that. It’s about Bush looting the Treasury, plain and simple, BECAUSE HE CAN, because we let him. He’s on his way out, what’s the worst that can happen to him?