Let's say it is your choice alone ......

[Stinky The Clown]

[sellitman]

1. *Bail out with restrictions (Government oversight)

No free lunch

[patrice]

2. Bail out with major reforms from all stakeholders.

[Not Me]

7. I agree.

Whe you go to the bank for a mortgage or other loan, they set the rules.
Higher fleet ecomony, plan for alternative fuels and jobs should be in the requirements.

[patrice]

11. It is the adversarial relationships that have lead to abuses. Both sides MUST be strong and fair.

I've always thought more employee ownership/investment would help a lot.

[ThomWV]

3. Why would I care if Honda bought out GM so long as there were jobs in Detroit?

[patrice]

15. How many and what jobs would it be okay for trans-national corps to own?

Given that "the global economy" is a real thing, why must it own a significant sector of American jobs? If it can't survive without that, is "the global economy" a viable business entity? If it isn't a viable economic entity, which BTW seems quite apparent recently, how healthy for it, or for us for that matter, is it to enable it (the global economy, that is) by giving it tooooooooo much "refined carbohydrates", i.e. too much control over THE basis of any and all economies, i.e. LABOR.

Labor is Capital too.

[lumberjack_jeff]

22. Because engineers need jobs too? n/t

[Lyric]

4. Nationalize.

[CTyankee]

5. Well, I own some preferred stock in GM so I'm glad (for me) that they were bailed out.

If it weren't for that I'd be for anything as long as the workers weren't totally screwed and we could keep the factories open. We need to make something in this country.

[.... callchet ....]

6. Nationalize it !

It's not about building cars tat will sell, it's about jobs.

[Blue Dog Dominion]

9. Does that mean we would be forced to buy those shitty cars?

[.... callchet ....]

10. If it means putting those shitty people to work....Yes

Its not about you, it's about the U SA.

[Blue Dog Dominion]

14. Pay more for a shitty product?

Fuck that.

[Stinky The Clown]

16. Prove "shitty product" or stop saying it.

There's no basis for saying our products are any shittier than anyone else's. Yeah, some of our cars are shitty. But so are some of the other guys' cars. Your statement has no provable basis.

[dem629]

17. The market pretty much shows it.

People aren't buying their shitty products.

[.... callchet ....]

20. They aren't buying any cars.

They aren't buying any cars and they ain't going to buy any more cars. The bailout ? Throwing pennies into a crowd of beggars doesn't solve any problems.

[.... callchet ....]

21. All car sales are down.

?

[dem629]

25. Some companies (the better ones) are doing OK business.

[Stinky The Clown]

26. Is it fair to say no one walks anymore .... on a rainy day?

In case you hadn't noticed, no one is buying **any** cars. And have you noticed that Honda's sales were down lower than were Fords?

[Blue Dog Dominion]

34. Maybe, they are or aren't as shittier as they used to be, but fuck em anyways

I used to always buy American cars and they gave me nothing but headaches. I'll never go back.

[dem629]

18. Who is going to keep putting money into a company that can't sell cars?

That's what you're advocating.

What's the logic of that?

[Shiver]

28. That's wha I was wondering

If the cars don't sell, how do you make the money to employ the workers? Their job would be essentially meaningless...

[lumberjack_jeff]

23. Government owned auto manufacturers have a lackluster quality record. n/t

[Renew Deal]

33. Great. We'll have a government plant selling cars nobody wants. An american Yugo

Brilliant!

[Wapsie B]

8. Bailout but give the taxpayers preferred stock in the companies

receiving a bailout. Have the dividends from that stock go into Medicare/national health insurance plan/SSI. That goes for any and all companies asking for taxpayer assistance.

[L0oniX]

12. Nationalize the banks too.

[lumberjack_jeff]

24. If we must nationalize, that would be the place to start. n/t

[Stevenmarc]

13. The oil companies directly benefit from the auto industry

let them bail them out, they can afford it.

[Ohio Joe]

19. I don't know

I don't know enough about economics to give an answer to this question.

[On the Road]

27. All You Have to Do is Look at the Way the Obama Economic Bill is Proceeding

to see why a government-run business is a last resort. Of course, the government could hold a majority stake in the companies and continue to have them private run. That might be no worse than the non-existent oversight by shareholders and boards of directors.

[treestar]

29. Nationalize it

If we as taxpayers are paying for it then we should have a say in how it's run.

Look at how they tried to spend it on a jet.

[flvegan]

30. I want to say nationalize, but I don't trust our govt to do anything.

Too many of them are in someone's pocket, and I think it would just get worse. I say bail them out with very strict guidelines on how they move forward. Make the pay scale for executives more reasonable. No money for anything built/run outside the US. All outsourcing of US based biz brought back here. I could go on...

[Ron Green]

31. To hell with new cars; build trains.

Let US heavy industries do something they should have done 40 years ago - build extensive high-speed rail and multi-modal transportation networks.

Keep older cars cars running (although it will cost more and more) as people change their living and working habits.

Keep a rental fleet available for people who need a car occasionally.

Let the overseas makers provide the cars we have to have. They'll be more expensive, but it's about time for true-cost accounting.

Enough of the band-aid fixes; it's time to start changing the world.

[Renew Deal]

32. Where's the "Let them fail" option?

I don't support that, but it should be a choice.