The New Government Motors

This afternoon on Hugh Hewitt there was a GM dealer from Minnesota who tried (IMHO quite unsuccessfully) to make the case for the government sponsored bankruptcy of the car company formerly known as General Motors. It is a hard case to make.

At its height GM had more than 400,000 employees - after this round it should settle, if it actually survives at fewer than 40,000.

One of the odd justifications that this guy made was that Toyotas or Hondas that are made in the US are made up of Japanese parts. Even if that is true, does he allow for the GM vehicles that carry the label that are actually made outside the US in Canada or Mexico? Go to Leon, in the state of Guanajuato if you want to see where your suburban was made.

We have a GM vehicle now which is about 7 or 8 years old. With the government support for GM, I will not consider another GM vehicle. Ditto for Chrysler. One of the obvious disparities of this type of intervention is with the one company that has lived without bailouts. Ford, will operate without the "largess" of the federal government but will probably have to endure their other kinds of interventions. The consolation that Ford has is the record of state run car companies.

The picture is of the last production model of the most successful line of state run racing cars, the Trabant. In East Germany it was said that the way to double the value of the car was to fill it half full with gas.