Wonkette
Hmm, so this auto bailout problem, is it a good thing or a bad thing? Good, because the government should continue to withhold money from GM and Chrysler until they get their acts together. Bad, because GM and Chrysler cannot get their acts together without money, plus the demise of the manufacturing sector etc. President Obama assures us, however, that no matter what happens “we will not let our auto industry simply vanish.” This is liberal socialist code for “we will raise taxes on the wealthy and give everyone a free Geo Metro.” [Washington Post]
Oh thank God! And for a moment there I was afraid the disappearance of the auto industry might lead more US American cities to adopt public transport, which would cause real Americans to have to sit next to other people (including possibly immigrants and colored people) on their way to work.
You forgot about the cool part — a tax deduction of the interest for the new car you buy.
See, you borrow money you don’t have to buy a car you don’t need, getting the financing from an insolvent financial institution. Then the finance charges are deducted from your taxes, so the deficit grows. Meanwhile, soon-to-be unemployed auto workers assemble the car you can’t afford.
RECOVERY! It looks like a 12-step process to me.
When GM is bought out by Radio Flyer, I’ll be looking forward to the next episode of CSI: Miami, where David Caruso chases bad guys in a little red wagon pulled by a chocolate lab.
But what about moving sidewalks? And, yes, jetpacks?
GEO Metro? Meh. Call me when they start doling out Ford Festivas.
GM will never get out of its economic hole until it makes a car that runs solely on ground-up Oldsmobile parts … and tears.
“I remember back in the 20’s and 30’s when Americans bucked up and invented new cars out of moxie, grit, old trains, and know-how and I’m afraid this generation today is just too lazy playing XBocks Kindle and relying on the Japanese auto industry to make their cars for them. I weep for my country.”
-Richard Cohen
The second we restructure the auto industry and they are building all electric and hybrid cars, you know they are going to discover that the entire core of the earth is solid petroleum and the car industry will go under again.
magic titty: Pepperidge Farm remembers too!
But without cars what will I buy that will distract woman from my receding hairline, growing gut, and small penis?
“We will raise taxes on the wealthy and give everyone a free electric GM Malia.” [/fixed]
Instead of sending aid to the Iraq, we could send a fleet of Dodge Neons and Chevy Imprezas. Solves another problem- if those things were used as car bombs, just by osmosis, the bombs would fail. In Detroit, failure is not an option, it comes standard!
http://politicallyhomelesslibertarian.blogspot.com/
Will the Flintstones still be able to make an appearance in the future if they drive American-made?
OT, but I read in Sullivan that Ann Althouse is marrying a commenter on her law blog.
Seeing as how this might be the start of a trend, I hereby offer my proposal of marriage to SKS. I’m first!
I, for one, never gave up on “Cars”
http://www.8bithero.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/thecars.jpg
Chain Tattoo: Great idea to save GM - tax deduction on the interest paid on news cars! Since GM is offering 0% financing on all their new cars, guess I’ll have to buy a Jap car to get in on the deal!
BigDupa: Win.
V572625694: Oh God, she’s marrying a blog commenter? *shudder* Those people are the scum of the earth.
I’m sure the GM dude will be sent to a perfectly nice concentration camp. NOT LIKE THE REST OF US!!!1!!
WTF?
The Jetson’s take Rosie the Robot for a ride but leave Astro the Dog home?
V572625694: I’m pretty sure you won’t be “the first.”
You people don’t understand. I drove a Chevy Cobalt for a week. You don’t know how fucked GM is until you drive a Cobalt. Suddenly everything made sense.
rocktonsammy: La Migra is probably looking for Rosie. She’s an undocumented robot, you know.
rocktonsammy:
Poor Astro was thought to be a grizzly bear and shot from a helicopter in AK. Sorry you did not hear about that until now.
NoWireHangers: Yeah, I had a Cobalt for a week too, while my car was in the body shop after some douche hit it in the parking lot. What an unbelievable piece of crap. Ironically, my 17-year-old Mazda handles better, has better pick up, is more comfortable, gets better mileage and has better driver visibility. I’d sooner drive one of those Flintstones foot-powered models than own a Chevy Cobalt.
Rush:
Rut ro
Jane was such a Betty.
NoWireHangers: I haven’t been in one of those, but I can imagine GM cars are progressively getting worse.
Plus they have crappy brand names. Plus they make the same damn car like 3 times under different brand names. You don’t need an ivy league MBA to think consider the concept of brand differentiation - and by this I don’t mean some different sticker and hubcaps slapped on the thing.
In this case, let the market work, let them fail, its been overdue for far too long. Or is that socialism now? It’s incredible the conservatives have abandoned Social Darwinism now - maybe its all the creationist home skooling (God made GM)
Mr Blifil: Are you sure from personal knowledge?
I was on the Porland, OR streetcar (dodging snobby people holding onto hot lattes’ precariously as we careened down the street) and I read this on the manufacturer’s nameplate: SKODA. Now, I know that Skoda builds cars equivalently to the Cobalt (GM’s attempt at reverse engineering of a Honda Civic, I might add)…but what if Rocky Obama has GM start BUILDING PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION INFRASTRUCTURE?!
Talk amongst yourselves…Insert any Tonka-toy blingee 26″ rims and tRUCknUTZ as well…
Bruno: When I worked at a GMC dealership we had a truck come in with GMC nameplates on one side and Chevy plates on the other…
bynrdskynrd: “A Streetcar Named tRUCknUTZ”
Dammit! I just sold my Geo Metro. You’re not telling me I have to take it back are you?
Thank goodness. I had horrific visions of TruckNutz and hairy cracks in shear bikers’ shorts. *shivers*
BigDupa:
Love the name, love the avatar.
We are saving the American auto industry why? Apparently, the turnaround plan GM turned in was so awful it cost Rick Wagoner his job. I think it said, “we’ll do more of the same until the market turns around, we hope”. Ha. FoxNews was fretting that the government got to fire CEOs left and right (I suspect Rupert is at the top of Rahm’s list). And, the leftists in charge want to merge the maker of Jeep with some Eye-talian car maker. I wonder if that means my Liberty will eventually go from zero to a hunnert in 30 seconds?
rocktonsammy: Don’t look now, but Rosie appears to be set on “kill.”
Do I have to mention???
Not for nothing, but Rick Wagoner’s middle name is Station.
Great, I love how we now reward failure. At one time in our history a failed company did just that–failed. Now our government uses fear as a means of keeping such companies afloat: the fear being that if they collapse so too will our economy. The president needs to back away from GM and Chrysler and let these two companies go the way of the dodo bird.
-billorders84
http://bill84121.blogspot.com
bynrdskynrd: The irony of this is that in the 1950’s GM bought up many of the interuban railways and trolley lines (light rail) and closed them down in order to make business for their stinky, smelly, smoky diesel bus division.
And of course GM was the largest maker of railroad locomotives in the US - possibly even the world - until they ran into competition from GE and then ended up selling the division a few years back.
So GM has a long history with mass transit - a long history wrecking it!
billorders84: … and not only the clunker companies- AIG and the failed banks should also go to the shite house, and take the toxic debt they created with them. The government can then re-capitalize the Market.
Yes, there would be short-term panic as Wall St. wails and stockholders get hosed, but consider the alternative: These dead companies will inevitably fail anyway (there simply isn’t enough public money to save them), and since the government has already squandered what public funds it did have in a futile effort to sustain them, it will be left with a collapsed market and nothing in the Treasury to re-capitalize it with. The government will then have no choice but to print money regardless, and hope to hell they can keep inflation under three figures.
I hate to sound so James Kunstler here, but this is bloody ugly (and unsustainable). I note the Chinese are starting to make noises about making up a currency to replace the greenback as the world standard. I suspect that huge pile of US Treasury Bonds sitting in their vaults, gathering dust and losing value, is making them think that they are living in ‘interesting times’…
Yugo for the win! A product of Serbo-Croation technology.
Nano! Nano!
Zhu Bajie
Love all the comments–Snark is the new black!
Here goes the scare tactic on social democracy once more… Of course, welfare programs aren’t meant to be incentives for being stricken in poverty, but a means to alleviate the plight of thousands of americans.
shinn