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http://michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php>
>Hmmm...OK, let's deconstruct Moore's message.
>
>First, I find it ironic that the title of his piece is "Senate to Middle Class: Drop Dead" when he argued in his film "Roger and Me" that GM workers were underpaid and implied that they were lower-class slave labor. But we'll put that aside for the moment.
>
>In a worst-case scenario GM would shut down and the trickle-down effect to supplier firms would indeed amount to close to 3 million unemployed. But, that number ignores aftermarket sales, parts suppliers who only rely on some income from new car sales, et al.
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>Moore ignores the bankruptcy option. Yes, workers would lose jobs (not 3 million!) and GM would be in a deep hole to dig out of but Chrysler did it in the late 70's and GM could, too.
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>So then he goes on a diatribe about how evil vampiric Republicans are and how they are using this to union-bust.
>
>Sigh.
>
>There is a thriving automobile industry in America. The nameplates are Toyota, Nissan, and BMW (amongst others). The plants are run efficiently, the workers are fairly paid and the management, I suppose, may be more attuned to what the market looks for.
>
>Over the past 2 years GM has lost $51 billion. The hopes of the company rest with the Volt that is a great car but will have to be priced at $50K and not a lot of people will pay that. GM is doomed no matter what and any investment the government (read: taxpayer) makes is almost surely doomed.
>
>Let 'em go down. What emerges from the wreckage will be stronger, more nimble, and more able to address the market.
>
>As Dennis Miller used to say: That's my opinion, I could be wrong.
I agree with most of what you say. Part of me wants to go along with bailing them out, based on the sheer number of ordinary Americans who would be impacted. If we can can bail out fat cats, why can't we bail out auto workers? OTOH these companies have been horribly, horribly mismanaged. If you have any belief in the free market at all, which I do, they should be allowed to fail. This is not an easy call at all IMO.
