Originally posted by: Ktulu
Originally posted by: chess9
So....
We give Detroit $14 billion dollars while millions of people are losing their jobs, credit availability is almost at zero, Americans have low esteem for American made cars, people are wary of buying from a failing automaker, consumer confidence is at historic lows...YET
Someone obviously is delusional enough to think that there are plenty of Americans who will actually buy American cars.
Please explain to me how doing this makes any sense?
Are we prepared to spend $200 billion on the automakers to keep them afloat for at least one and maybe two years? How deep will we go?
We survived the Great Depression, Two World Wars and George W. Bush (almost), so I think we can survive the loss of the Big Three.
The big pain is coming and this bailout won't stop it, but WILL make the pain worse. This is like giving aspirin to someone with a ruptured appendix. The patient is going to get very sick because the remedy is inappropriate.
What was it Einstein said? ""Two things are infinite the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the former".
-Robert
Do you even know what you're talking about? GM is still outselling Toyota. The American public has lost confidence in the economy, not the US auto industry. EVERYONE is losing sales even Toyota and Honda.
http://online.wsj.com/mdc/publ...osales.html#autosalesE
Thanks for making my point, in part. GM may be outselling Toyota, but they are bleeding money like they have a severed artery. And GM has been losing market share for years to the Japanese. You need an historical perspective young man. Thirty years ago very few people would buy Japanese cars. Today, GM may be outselling Toyota in the USA, but is that a point worth making? Toyota is the world's largest car maker, and they are beating GM is almost all of the world's markets and competing just short of parity here.
But, even if your point were worth making, people aren't going to be buying cars for another year at least. Retrenchment in all sectors is just now picking up steam, so it's anyone's guess just how deep and how long this recession will be. I've seen estimates from 6 months to 3 years. But, as I said, thanks for making that point for me as well, though you fail to answer the question: "Who is going to be buying cars in America?"
Show me you know what YOU are talking about.
-Robert