The desire of the big 3 auto makers to grab federal bail-out funds is understandable but not in the public interest.
These companies have been mismanaged,including overpaying their employees, working hand in hand with the unions for benefits that raised the price per unit of car beyond that which the non-unionized auto makers in the South have to pay.They have too many models,and for too long were behind Japan,Korea and Germany in quality.
Perhaps one half of the money requested is for payment for workers benefits.This will do nothing to make them build more efficient or cheaper cars. They will simply use up the money and ask for more-and rather quickly.
Sadly, it might be preferable that we not have 3 auto manufacturers but one or two successful ones.
To give them 50 billion sends the wrong signal to all of industry,that we will bail out each and every company if they are large enough.Capitalism does not reward economic failure.Here the problem is not a credit crunch,but a failure to run their business properly.
