To bail or not to bail...

I'm wrestling a little with this Auto Industry bail out thing.   For starters, I know how important the industry is to the economy of this continent. I realize how many jobs are on the line if one or more of the big three go boobs up, and I certainly don't want any hardworking person to lose their income.  But I'm having real difficulty feeling any charity towards those uber-wealthy CEO's crying poor to Ottawa right now. Wouldn't all of us like to be able to go to Ottawa when things get tough.  Wouldn't we all love a bail-out on those sleepless nights when making the mortgage or this months taxes is touch and go?  That would be sweet. But again, I understand that to let this industry go through the natural checks and balances that all the rest of us are forced to go through, would be catastrophic, at least for some people.  But could we at least see a little give and take.  It would be nice to hear at least one of them, in his Armani suit and thousand dollar loafers say 'Okay, okay, give us the money and I promise I'll only take a $500,000.00 salary next year.'  Even the Union guys saying, 'We'll cut back wages until we pay this money back'. Or at least somebody saying 'We'll stop making idiotic decisions like making gas guzzling, huge SUV's in the middle of a gas crisis and focus more heavily on green technology.'  'We're sorry about relaunching the Camaro...we weren't thinking!'  Something.  Anything. I have to tell you it's more than a little galling, as a self-employed person, a person who never knows from week to week where my next paycheck is going to come from, if it comes at all, to watch so many others sucking at the government teat. And doing so repeatedly over the years.  As my father so wisely said 'You can't piss up my back and tell me it's raining.'

Comments

[Tim Kelly]

Think it's important to keep a few things in mind: While the auto industry wants a bailout, let's remember the billions and billions paid in taxes by the companies and workers they've employed over the years in the US and Canada -- asking for a little back, by comparison, to stay alive doesn't seem totally out of line. It's also true that the latest financial crisis, which is killing every industry, hit the Big Three at a time when they were trying to restructure and having a bit of success -- it was like a double punch to the gut -- and while Wall and Bay Street get hundreds of billions (which they need), the auto industry has been left to flounder as hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost in North America. Unless some government help is provided, the Big Three may go under or be drastically weakened. If that's what people are willing to accept and the consequences that go with it, fine, but everybody should be aware that the impact will be felt across the entire Ontario economy and hurt us nationally. The Big Three have to make changes and there should be strings attached to any government bailout but there needs to be help.

[Pat]

Puhleeze! It's the blue collar workers who are bringing home the fat paycheques, not the salaried non-union guys. They are not "little guys at the bottom of the pile" and the office cats are not making such big money. Get your facts right.

[M. J. Roberts]

Here, Here, Neil. I can't agree with you more. It is really hard to feel sorry for the white-collar people in the auto industry when they will continue to take home six and seven figure salaries and attempt to cry poor. The compensation should start right there and then see what else may be needed after the fat in R&D is trimmed, too. Once again, it all comes back on the little guys at the bottom of the pile who are just trying to make a living. But we all know that they will, once again, get a pisspot full of money thrown at them so they can buy more suits! Something is very wrong with the whole picture.