Apparently last Tuesday the big three auto makers in Detroit (Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler) went to congress to beg for a $25 billion tax-payer funded “bridge loan” to avoid having to lay off massive amounts of people and close factories. While this may not have any direct link to small businesses, I feel like it’s something that needs to be talked about because it is such a big, huge thing. Plus, we are the ones funding the whole thing – whether you own your own business or not.
Personally, I think that they should have to go it alone. I don’t think that it’s fair for them to run their businesses into the ground and then expect to get help when their failed businesses plans blow up in their faces. I like what Mitt Romney had to say about the whole thing:
“If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.”
And I think he is totally right. I think it’s time that we start making these CEOs and their board of directors take some personal accountability for how they have been doing business. And I don’t think there is any better time than now to make them step up.
To hear the auto makers talk about it though, you would think that without the bail-out the whole world will come crashing to an end:
“This is all about a lot more than just Detroit. It’s about saving the U.S. economy from a catastrophic collapse,” Rick Wagoner [General Motors CEO] said.
And I suppose that, in part, he is right. If the American auto makers were to go under and disappear, there would be millions of jobs lost (estimated to be around 3 million). And those jobs lost would include the factory workers as well as the people who own dealerships, and all the people who work on the sales floor and the maintenance people. It is truly mind boggling to think about how many people in America could be adversely affected if the big three do go under. However, with so many jobs at stake, I would like to think that they would take the high road and do the restructuring that they need to do to make sure that they don’t end up in a similar situation in another ten years or so.
The whole thing is just down right scary. I feel like it’s a giant train wreck, I don’t want to watch but I can’t look away. I mean, how many times do you get to watch your economy crumble right in front of your eyes?
