Monday, December 29, 2008

The Automaker bailout from a different perspective..




Now I need to start this with a little background. I am from a GM family (MIC, and GMAC  now retired). We have had an exciting life because of this. We moved several times, and got to meet a bunch of really great people. GMAC helped put my sister and I though school. We have ALWAYS owned GM vehicles. 

Many people out there are against the bailout, they believe that big companies should not be helped out no matter what. They should fix their problems themselves or pay the consequences.
That is all fine and good, and someone should have to be held accountable for major decisions that have caused a downfall, but not millions of people.

There are millions of GM employees, or people employed because of GM in the US. There are the car dealers (salesmen, parts, and auto body workers), factory workers that build the cars, numerous suppliers that build parts that go into cars, finance men and women, designers, and engineers. Some of these people live paycheck to paycheck, and cannot afford to lose their jobs. 

If GM filed bankruptcy many of these people would potentially loose their jobs.  There are also about 479,000 retirees. These people are potentially going to lose a portion of their retirement, and their health care. Now it has been put out there that around 75% of the retiree's are not of Medicare qualifying age (my family is in this bucket) . So where does that leave those people?Not only them, but people who are currently receiving treatment for serious illnesses. These people would be stuck without health insurance, and probably not able to get new insurance due to pre-existing conditions. What if that was your loved one, receiving treatment for cancer, and then was just cut off, no insurance, no way to pay for the expensive live saving treatments. (thankfully I have a very healthy family). People who worked (worked very hard) their whole lives, and invested their money into their retirement funds these are the people who are going to suffer. CEO's, COO's, and CFO's who have an abundant amount of money are not the people that that will be hurt by these companies failing. 

I do agree that in order for these companies to keep on functioning there need to be changes, that is obvious. I do agree that there are things that maybe they could have done to lessen the damage that the current situation of the economy has put them in. 
I do not agree that millions of people should be put into a tough, potentially really tough spot because of it. 

8 people showing some love:

Aubrey said...

Wow. Thank you for showing the other side of this debate.
I have been against the auto bailout (as I was for the other one!) because I don't believe we the taxpayers should have to pay for their mistakes. When the bigwigs are taking millions in salary and bonuses, it just seems wrong to me.
Sorry. I do hope everything works out for the honest, hardworking people like you though!

Brittany said...

AMEN!

I am also on this side of the debate, as my hubby, friends and numerous family members are employed by Jeep/Chrysler. The auto industry is our family and our livelihood. I don't think people realize the impact of this.

The fact is, they gave $700 billion to white collar banks without a blink of the eye, I just think our industry should be treated the same way.

Jen said...

I'm with Brittany on this... and for the same reasons.

The bank bailout was a complete mystery to me... and excuse me, AIG took their execs on a luxury RETREAT with the money?

I live in Michigan. Enough said.

Great post and thank you!

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