Posted by
HubieH. on Friday, March 06, 2009 3:38:55 PM
For the month of February, Ford Motor sales fell 48%, as the auto slump
continues. Ford, the first automaker to report sales Tuesday, said it sold
99,060 vehicles last month compared with the 192,248 it sold in February
2008. This also places further doubt on the financial viability of General
Motors Corp., and Chrysler as well, making it difficult for them to sell cars
and generate critical cash to supplement the $17.4 billion in government
loans that are keeping them in busines.
Automakers spent more on Rebates, low-interest financing and othe
incentives in an effort to bring out buyers. But, even with all of the fantastic
deals, sales continued to slump.
I cannot for the life of me believe that Washington will continue to put
money into these businesses. I cannot believe that Washington is so blind
that even they cannot see the handwriting on the wall. The people are not
going to go out and buy a car that is first of all way overpriced, even with
all of the rebates and other incentives. People have better things to do
whatever money they might still have, like put food on the table,
and provide for their families real necessities.Besides, they don't
know in many cases whether they will have a job tomorrow to even
provide those real necessities of life.
It is unfortunate but Washington needs to stop holding the hands of the
Automakers, and let the chips fall where they may. If they go belly-up, they
can always try to restructure the company and begin over again. This will
enable them to renegotiate the Union contracts, and everything else that
makes up the business infrastructure that may contribute to the outlandish
costs required to operate that business.
This should also apply to any other company that is being run enefficiently
and just plain wrong. A few that come to mind are, AIG, Fanny Mae, and
Freddy Mac. The Government continues to pour good money after bad,
into these poorly run companies where it is being wasted. They would do
far better to single out the businesses that are being run efficiently, but that
are running into financial binds because of the state of the economy, and
put the Stimulus money into those companies to keep them afloat.
Finally, whatever happened to President Obama's "Transparency plan
for keeping the American People in the loop so to speak, to know what
is in the bills before they are voted on and passed? (Hm! I wonder). We
see them after they are passed and approved by Mr. Obama. Also, so
much for his plan to cut out all ear marks. From what I can see, it
seems as though there are more ear marks than ever in the bills being put
through by this poor excuse for a Congress, along with it's illustreous
leadership her royal highness Fancy Nancy, and his lordship sir Harry.
This Congress cares about as much for the welfare of the American
people as someone like Hugo Chavez. If the truth be known, he might
care more for us.
I want to also try to add a little real humor to our lives over and above
what Washington is giving us every day !!!
"Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees in a
development, then names the streets after them".
By B.V.