Detroit Under Water

I've owned a lot of cars. In order: VW Bug, VW Squareback, 1967 Chevy Nova, Toyota Starlet, Toyota Tercel Wagon (Dream Car), Subaru Wagon, Jeep Cherokee, Chevy Nova, Geo Metro, Subaru Forester, Ford Focus and Scion xA. I'm including my wife's cars as well since I drive them.

So: 2 VW's, 1 Jeep, 2 Chevys, 1 Ford, 6 Japanese cars.

I prefer the Japanese cars and have no love of American automobiles.

I can rant about American cars. I can talk about how they fall apart, how they make user feature choices that ruin usability purely in an attempt to hoodwink the consumer. They are not interested in repeat business-- at least, not mine. Every modern American car I've driven has been inadequate. I liked my 1967 Nova and the later Nova from the 1980s. But the more recent Jeep sucked and the Focus sucks. The only reason I replaced the Geo with the Focus was price. Used Toyotas and Hondas were just too damned expensive for a car to bridge between current technology and what's coming.

So: as a consumer it doesn't matter if Detroit sinks or not.

Even so, a lot of people do buy American cars. 22% market share is still 17 mCars/year. And if we're in the business of bailing out Citigroup and AIG for stupidity that makes the auto makers look like geniuses, what's the problem dropping a paltry $25 billion on Detroit? I mean, AIG has gotten well over a $120 billion alone and Paulson is dropping money on bankers like it's raining money-- from the point of view of AIG I guess it is.

It's strange to listen to the rhetoric. Why should we save them from their own mistakes?

You can make exactly the same argument for AIG. The answer for AIG is that there's a financial meltdown if you don't. The answer for Detroit is you get massive unemployment for Americans if you don't. We know whose side Bush is on.

I like Barney Frank's plan: the companies must follow hard rules such as no dividends, no increase in executive pay, etc.

I only wish they'd forced AIG to follow the same rules.
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