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Posted by D Sherman on Monday, December 15, 2008 at 19:56:29 :
In Reply to: Job Loss... posted by MoparNorm on Monday, December 15, 2008 at 17:59:47 :
There is absolutely no way that 10% of American jobs will go away if one or even 3 car companies go broke. I would believe that 10% of jobs are in some way related to the auto industry, but that's a whole different thing that saying they're dependent on these three companies (or more realistically, just GMC). Of course in one way of looking at it, the whole economy is intertwined and everything eventually affects everything else (take home construction for a recent example), but that's still no reason for the government to prop up one uncompetitive company out of the whole economy.
People will still buy, drive, and maintain cars and trucks, no matter who sells them, so the industry as a whole isn't going away, and most of those jobs will stick around. The loss of one major competitor will only allow the remaining companies to increase their market share. Even in bankruptcy, GMC is likely to either keep operating to some extent, or have its worthwhile pieces bought by somebody who can keep them operating. Look at all the airlines that have been "bankrupt" for years but are still flying. I'm not making light of the loss of good industrial jobs. I just don't think throwing tax money at the most mismanaged and money-losing company in any particular industry is good for jobs in the long run. There was a time when Boeing, Lockheed, and Douglas were the "big 3" in the airplane business. When Lockheed, and then Douglas stopped being able to make commercial airliners competitively, the government didn't step in to bail them out, and people didn't stop building or buying airplanes either.
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