wow dave that site is kinda scary in all aspects of government.including the executive branch.

 

Sorry I reached my limit with politics for this week and my head is too full to understand any more info. Have to focus on the canadian side since nuclear war is being waged on parliament hill at the moment.

 

no hand outs!!!! to any one!!!!!

 

I watched the auto CEO hearings a little this evening.

With the questions and insinuations the politicians were making comments about all I could think about was holding the government up to the same standards.

I am here to tell you, if you made that comparison all of the big three are sitting rather good.

 

That was my take on the govt I especially liked it where they were worried whether they drove by themself or had help.
Then were they driving back.
The govt is in the worst money bind than anybody wonder how many of them drove there.
It makes me wonder if they think these ceo's weren't costing there companys money making a 3 day trip instead of 1 day away from there office .
These guys may have something to do they are not congressmen.

 

Just so you know, toyota opened a huge assembly plant in woodstock, ontario today. They along with honda seem to be doing rather well and have as of yet not asked for a penny's worth of bailout.

Demands to help union jobs in auto and autoparts plants are getting so loud in canada that its contributing to the political instability up here. I'm getting fed up with it. A paper mill was just closed on the east coast because the union workers refused to take a wage cut. Unions in the states seem to be getting their act together, but it looks like the hard liners are still in control up here.

As some one that is basically self employed, I have no recourse for when work dries up. Its up to me to make it or break it. If I blow it, I have no one to blame but myself. At what point did we decide that its acceptable to demand cash for our own mistakes?

OK, give them some low interest loans to get through the next few months, but demand some serious collateral on that. If the company goes under, the assets of the management as well as the company are turned over to the state. The only problem is all the politicians seem to understand is how to make laws and not much else. So their understanding of cars is none what so ever.

That chevy volt has been plagued by problems and I wouldn't be surprised if the thing was in fact all gas powered for the sake of the photo op. The jeep EV is actually a conversion that was done for chrysler by an outside jobber. For all we know, the big 3 wouldn't know where to start when it came to making battery powered vehicles. But it sure made for good publicity.

 

I thought the publicity of them driving anything was stupid.These guys draw big salaries they spend a day driving a day in the hearing and a day driving home when they could have flown for probably 1/2 a days salery or less. So the big three lose 2 days out of their CEO's who are supposed to be making the companys money.

 

ENRON did a better job than the gov't does!

 

If anybody deserves a bailout it is US, the people. If you divide up the ridiculous amount of money allocated to bail out big corporations between the citizens of the US, we could all pay off our mortgages, debts, AND have money left over to buy new cars and a bunch of other stuff. Want to stimulate the economy? Bail US out. It's our money, after all....
I agree that these big corporations, and most of all our government, should be held accountable for their poor spending decisions. Sink or swim. Capitalism and free market economics DEPEND on survival of the fittest.

 

Some one on the electric car forum has brought this information to my attention about the PR stunt, and the chevy volt.

GM CEO Drives a Chevy Volt to Washington...Sort Of - U.S. News Rankings and Reviews

Basically, it confirms what we already suspected. The volt was trucked to washington, and only driven the last few miles to capitol hill for the sake of the cameras. This seems to confirm my suspicion that the volt is not capable of the range and speed that is claimed. So far all the video footage of the car is showing speeds of 15 MPH or less. Theres no way the volt could have driven all the way from detroit to washington DC. Taking a bicycle would have been faster.

Anyone notice the press pointing this out yet?

 

I wish ... 1 trillion dolars divided by 300 million people ends up being $3,333. For some people, that would be a huge relief. I'm not rich, but since I am currently working in California trying to get back on my feet after being out of work for more than two years, that amounts to only a few months income tax to stupid CA.

What this country really needs is to return to the reality that real wealth is earned over time by doing something of real value -- not by selling future profits to each other. Especially when those profits are made by exploiting workers (slaves) in third world countries, leaving hard working US citizens without any source of income. I feel for the older people who have lost their retirement. I'm young enough that I'll recover and I say who cares about huge profits on investments more than a decent wage for a good ol steady job...?

I think electric cars are going to be a part of the future. However, I couldn't plug one in here, because the entire block I live on is powered by one small transformer, I'd black out the entire block for a day. Another reality check -- there is no single reason, other than greed, that utilities should be privatized. As much as I hate government meddling, some things are just monopolies, period. As for the need for more transmission lines, in most cases they could just hang another set of wires on the existing towers -- what's the big deal?

 

tbone, has that transformer blown out before? You can use a regular wall outlet to charge an electric car. If you can run a refrigerator or drier or AC, you can charge an electric car.

 

AFIK no. What I'm trying to say is the same as others have said -- in the summer, the power already goes out often because the whole distribution system is horribly underdesigned and the generators aren't sufficient. I'm sure that if everyone added a fridge, that transformer would blow...

 

AMEN to thet last paragraph! If they can't make it someone else will come along who can!
And if you bought something you couldn't afford...........too bad, dumb decision. You might have to start over too.
This country is going to go bankrupt, bailing other bad companies out will just make it happen sooner.

 

One thing to consider.

A big part of the auto companies troubles started because of the housing market crash.

That took down places like AIG on the lending side, which then impacted other parts of AIG that had nothing to so with houses or cars.

Case in point here, my families life insurance is underwritten by AIG.
So if AIG fails, so does my life insurance policy which we have been paying into for years before this ever started.
Our relationship with AIG had nothing to do with what brought them down to where they either had to have a bailout or fail, but if they failed it is going to have serious implications for me.

The same thing will happen to others if the auto companies fail as well.
Back up the page someone was talking about Honda not wanting a bailout.
With the Honda headquarters in Japan are you sure they never got one from the Japanese government?

Just like Ford USA and Ford Canada, if the US Ford goes belly up, the one in Canada will do the same.

This is a mess, and it is world wide.
With parts being made in many countries, if one of the big three go down it is going to affect people in places you never imagined.

I am not really for the bailouts, but I also realize what would happen without them.

Now the big question is, can they fix the problems that brought them to this point?
Looking at the government track record so far, if they get more involved the problems will get worse not better.