Let them fail!

[Michael OLeary]

Chrysler Canada Inc. has warned Ottawa and Queen's Park that it could close its two assembly plants in Canada, eliminating more than 8,000 direct jobs, and shift the work to the United States if the two governments fail to provide $1.6-billion in emergency financial help.

1.6 Billion to save 8000 "direct" jobs.

1.6 Billion dollars is $200,000 per job - to continue building the same vehicles that the corporation isn't selling enough of to break even now.

And how many "indirect" jobs, maybe another 32000?  That's allowing for 4 secondary supplier jobs for each Chrysler employee.

1.6 Billion dollars, if divided between those 40,000 workers is $40,000 per worker - and still no promise of industry restructure!

Where does it end?

 

[54/102 CEF]

We all seem to agree that they have to shrink capacity

Pulling a plant out of the Autopact would tend to do that.

Politics starts at home - and no Canadians voted for Obama.

But he is a good friend ......

Invest today for tomorrow

Payoff the factories and you have no equity

Get a piece of them and you have their attention

Legislate inefficiency off the road

Carpools from 7-9 and 3-5

Its all within any party`s power.

To answer Michael`s question on where it ends - how about LEADERSHIP?

 

[a_majoor]

$1.6 billion to save 8000 autoworker jobs (and for how long? Chrysler's owner Cerberus Capital Management LP refuses to invest any more money, which says a lot), when the same $1.6 billion is the resources required to create 32,000 full time jobs. This is a vast net loss to the Canadian economy and should be turned down flat.

Anyway, the future seems clear as far a Chrysler is concerned:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122849949643583239.html?mod=googlenews_wsj

Chrysler Hires Law Firm Jones Day as Bankruptcy Counsel

Chrysler LLC has hired a prominent law firm to provide counsel on a possible bankruptcy filing, people familiar with the matter said, adding to concerns the auto maker could go into default by the end of the month.

The news comes amid increasing scrutiny on Chrysler's request for emergency loans from the federal government and pointed questions from Congress about why its majority owner, Cerberus Capital Management LP, doesn't step up to stabilize the auto maker.

Under tough questioning before a Senate committed Friday, Chrysler Chief Executive Robert Nardelli acknowledged he appealed to Cerberus for help and was turned down.

Interested investors should stand ready to purchase the "Jeep" brand, the tooling for the minivans and perhaps the MOPAR performance franchise; three niche markets that Chrysler did have some success in.

 

[Flip]

Here's a cool little video link someone send me.

http://info.detnews.com/video/index.cfm?id=1189

As anyone can see, the company ( Ford ) is not the party that refuses to learn.
The video places the blame squarely with the UAW.

 

[Greymatters]

The whole point of capitalist based society is 'supply and demand' - how will this money force consumers to buy cars they cant afford? 

Whats the point of saving the job if no one buys the product?

Any other company would go out out of business...

 

[Bruce Monkhouse]

Any other company would go out out of business...

..and don't think lots of company lawyers have the "feed us" papers already drawn up and ready to file the moment any money goes to the Big Three.

 

[54/102 CEF]

Whats the point of saving the job if no one buys the product?

Buy time

If they're toast it will become clear to all soon enough

 

[Michael OLeary]

Buy time

At this point I think it's more "delay the inevitable."

 

[Greymatters]

At this point I think it's more "delay the inevitable."

More of a refusal to accept reality...

 

[54/102 CEF]

More of a refusal to accept reality...

Here's the reality http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/10/opinion/10friedman.htm

And it applies to everyone

 

[FastEddy]

Here's the reality http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/10/opinion/10friedman.htm

And it applies to everyone

Excellent read, Boy ! does it hit the nail on the head. And I'm guessing that their line workers are not making $71.00 ph USD, or CEO's 24, mil a year.

Cheers.

 

[imjustsomeguy]

Let the big 3 fend for themselves.
What about the 10 000 BC forestry jobs that have been lost in the last little while? Everybody in the industry here on the North Island (Vancouver Island) is out of work for an indefinite amount of time.
There is NO talk about bailouts, handouts or any kind of "out". Just bleak outlooks for the future and a lot of worried families.

In my opinion, the dice should be rolled and the strong will survive. However, public money should be spent to assist those who are displaced. People should be offered retraining with little or no hoops to jump through and the EI program should get an overhaul to make it more accessible to those in need.

We cannot "force" people to buy our products. There is no miracle bailout that will save ANY industry. Throwing taxpayer money at any of these companies will not solve any problems...it will only make a "taxed to death" society worse when taxes increase to regain the billions of dollars that will be spent on bailouts.

my $.02 ... I am not an economist...just a taxpayer and displaced worker offering an opinion.

 

[Greymatters]

However, public money should be spent to assist those who are displaced. 

There are some programs that do this already in place, but they are not in every community and the scope of assistance is limited...

 

[imjustsomeguy]

There are some programs that do this already in place, but they are not in every community and the scope of assistance is limited...

Very true...there are a few programs around. I should have made a point to say " MORE public money should be spent".
There should be more of these programs and aimed at a wider scope of the public as well. There is government assistance available, but not enough, IMO.

 

[FastEddy]

Let the big 3 fend for themselves.
What about the 10 000 BC forestry jobs that have been lost in the last little while? Everybody in the industry here on the North Island (Vancouver Island) is out of work for an indefinite amount of time.
There is NO talk about bailouts, handouts or any kind of "out". Just bleak outlooks for the future and a lot of worried families.

In my opinion, the dice should be rolled and the strong will survive. However, public money should be spent to assist those who are displaced. People should be offered retraining with little or no hoops to jump through and the EI program should get an overhaul to make it more accessible to those in need.

We cannot "force" people to buy our products. There is no miracle bailout that will save ANY industry. Throwing taxpayer money at any of these companies will not solve any problems...it will only make a "taxed to death" society worse when taxes increase to regain the billions of dollars that will be spent on bailouts.

my $.02 ... I am not an economist...just a taxpayer and displaced worker offering an opinion.

Its nice to hear someone else is angry out there. I don,t know what the average Logging industry wage is but I don't care !, theirs is a Hands on job, full of hazards, tough working conditions and probably few perks and has a far more useable and marketable product.

But the Corporate World can find 24 Milion Dollars a year for CEO's because they have a LL.B and belong to the Good Old Boys Club. Who probably can't even screw a light bulb in. It's is certainly not because they know how to run their Companies who are near in Bankruptcy.

And Please don't go with, Well its the Market.

We hum and haw or can't find dollars to put into our Health Professionals Wages and system which have our Lives in their hands.

Just a point, who would you rather have:  A $200k per year Brain Surgeon operate on your child. or One of the Big three CEO's at $24 Milion per year. Please no Apples and Oranges Song. You get the point.

Rant Off.

Cheers.

 

[imjustsomeguy]

Good rant, FastEddy.

That $24 million salary should be at $250k ...TOPS. Public travel like the rest of us
The people who are paid to protect us, fix us and even our heads of government make far less than this. There are no apples and oranges...only common sense.

 

[Infanteer]

That $24 million salary should be at $250k ...TOPS. Public travel like the rest of us
The people who are paid to protect us, fix us and even our heads of government make far less than this. There are no apples and oranges...only common sense.

Funny how when times are good, we're all capitalists - "Let the Good Times Roll Baby!"

When times are bad, we're all socialists - "250K Tops!".

Should we be consistent and apply this across the board - 32K a year Tops for the average forestry worker?  Yay to a centralized economy!

 

[zipperhead_cop]

Things will certainly get interesting in Windsor.  I'm morbidly curious what the crime rate will look like when the hundreds of functional alcoholic/pot/pill/crack heads that work the lines suddenly have no income. 
(and don't get all pissy thinking I'm panning all auto workers.  Hundreds is accurate)

And I offer a timely email.

 

[Kirkhill]

Funny how when times are good, we're all capitalists - "Let the Good Times Roll Baby!"

When times are bad, we're all socialists - "250K Tops!".

Should we be consistent and apply this across the board - 32K a year Tops for the average forestry worker?  Yay to a centralized economy!

You want consistency?  Now?  Why? 

 

[FastEddy]

Funny how when times are good, we're all capitalists - "Let the Good Times Roll Baby!"

When times are bad, we're all socialists - "250K Tops!".

Should we be consistent and apply this across the board - 32K a year Tops for the average forestry  Wellworker?  Yay to a centralized economy!

Nobody here is against Capitalism, its what we are all about on both sides of the boarder.

But what's the matter with getting proportionally paid for what you do and not who you know. Nobody has mentioned putting a Cap on payment for performance..

And you do it all the time, How much do you tip your paperboy, how much to the guy who cuts your grass. Its a probability you don't even leave a decent tip if the restaurant food was iffy. Or regardless of the task  would you pay out , lets say $1,500.00, sounds stupid eh.

Maybe your worried if it was the case you'd be making minimum wage.

Good luck to those Millionaires who have acquirered their wealth through hard work, creativity and actual contributions. I'd start the list with Bill Gates.



Grammar Edit.