Refresh my memory, but I could have sworn that we had a majority Democrat Congress and a Democrat President yesterday when they filed their Obama Administration designed bankruptcy plan.
Anyways, I do indeed feel for you. I live in Shreveport, LA where the H3 and a bunch of GM pickups are made. I think we have around 800 GM employees here and many times that in GM retirees.
This didn't happen over night! It took them eight year to drive the economy into such a state that no one wants to spend money on a new car! By the way, I was born about 180 miles south of you!! I almost moved to Shreveport myself back when they first opened up that truck plant as I have many more relatives in the south than I do up here in Ohio!! Wifes from Cleveland, Nuff Said!! 8-)
It took them eight year to drive the economy into such a state that no one wants to spend money on a new car!
I hate to break it to you, but purchases of cars has actually been rising after the gas prices dropped (I guess people were suffering from withdrawal of their SUVs). These debts didn't just form in the last eight years, GM has been slowly failing for many years now.
Really, this is no different from the Enron or Worldcom failures. Bill Clinton is no more responsible for those than George Bush is for GM or Chrysler. About the sole difference is Bush let those companies die. I wish Obama had done the same for GM.
I take it you aren't a GM retiree that worked for 37 years till poor health forced him to retire with expectation that he would actually have a pension and health care to keep him from becoming dependent on his fellow taxpayers to keep him from starving to death and paying for his health care! Even though it seems to have partly end up that way anyhow!!
I take it you aren't a GM retiree that worked for 37 years till poor health forced him to retire with expectation that he would actually have a pension and health care to keep him from becoming dependent on his fellow taxpayers to keep him from starving to death and paying for his health care! Even though it seems to have partly end up that way anyhow!!
For one, I most definitely am not a GM retiree (I'm thirty, so I've got a long ass way to go before I reach there, and its shit like this that is going to make it even longer still).
The government already takes a shitload out to provide for those who have financial troubles, so I fail to see why GM retirees get special benefits. What about those who worked for Enron or Worldcom? Where is there government bailout?
Also, if Obama actually manages to pull it off, health care will be provided on my dime in a couple of years anyway, so all a person needs is food and shelter.
This whole idea that such-and-such company is too big to let fail has no supporting evidence behind it, and based on prior evidence I would say it is mostly likely false. Ultimately I am against the government giving away any more money this year, as it seem like the government is attempting to double the national debt in a single year.
I can't remember the exact amount right now, but they were talking about 10% or more of the US gross domestic product being taken out if GM just died, that is taking in consideration the suppliers and everybody else that GM and it's employees wages support! So it would have been a really big hit on the country as a whole! As to you being 30, I assume that you plan to live long enough to retire also! People of my generation learned from their parent that the stock market is about as safe as Los Vegas, so 401K never looked that good to me! I depended on my Company pension for my main income in retirement! Living through the Reagan years of Hyper-inflation and watching my saving dwindle from it also didn't encourage me to sock a lot away either! My Dad worked till the day he died! I'm not able to do that due to poor health!
I can't remember the exact amount right now, but they were talking about 10% or more of the US gross domestic product being taken out if GM just died, that is taking in consideration the suppliers and everybody else that GM and it's employees wages support!
My contention is where did that number come from? Honestly, it sounds like bullshit to me. I want to see some current, up-to-date studies that can actually substantiate that. I don't think that is too much to ask after the infamous $700 billion number being pulled from Congress' collective ass.
As to you being 30, I assume that you plan to live long enough to retire also!
Actually, I can think of nothing worse than sitting at home all day doing nothing. I'm not saying that I necessarily plan on being employed by the same company until the day I die, but I will probably have enough hobbies that I will partake in once I "retire" that I might be supplementing my income quite well. Of course, I am currently employed as a computer programmer and electrical engineer, so I'm much less likely to have physical injuries than an assembly-line worker for GM. Of course, once retired, there is nothing stopping an assembly-line worker from working in the computer industry either. However, as I said, with all the money the government is pissing away, its going to take me vastly longer to save up the money to retire.
People of my generation learned from their parent that the stock market is about as safe as Los Vegas, so 401K never looked that good to me! I depended on my Company pension for my main income in retirement!
Well, that's part of your problem. Haven't you ever heard of the saying, "Don't put your eggs in one basket?" Essentially, when does the government stop stepping in to cover for other people's bad decisions? Given the standard ability and efficiency of the government, I say the government should stay the fuck out of it! What's the joke, "Don't worry, we're from the government, and we're here to help?
Government is ruining the dollar and our economy to prop up their supporters in the Unions and the Federal Reserves friends in the other companies, so where has the money gone and why has it helped as they said it would?
The Constitution has been used for a snot rag for too long and now look where large federal government, which has trampled on States and Individual power/rights for over a 150 years, has gotten our nation: right into the shitter!
lamparty
See Republicans ARE good for business! After 8 years of them GM is able to shed all of it's legacy debt! They no longer are responsible for paying my pension and health care! Nice fresh start for GM and the Retirees get messed over again!