Still unrepentant …

November 20th, 2008 at 07:59pm Annette LaCross

Published Nov. 9:

In my little corner of the world, two distinct opinions were battling for supremacy last week.

Resoundingly — and I have to say surprisingly — most echoed my assertion in last Sunday’s newspaper: Let them fail.

The Detroit Three automakers, that is, and their bid for (at last count) $75 billion from the federal government to stay afloat.

About 70 percent of those who got in touch with me last week also were against the bailout.

The U.S. auto industry has gotten plenty of taxpayer help in its 100-year history, they said, and here we are again. What guarantee do we have that the industry will position itself to finally stand on its own this time? When do we say enough is enough and allow the market to determine which companies live and which die?

As for the rest, they didn’t necessarily support the bailout as much as they opposed such heresy. How can we stand idly by while the domestic automakers — one of the engines driving the U.S. economy — sputter and die?

I couldn’t disagree with them. It broke my heart to write that column.

But this is business, and we cannot allow emotion to conquer reason.

They tried again: We’d be forced to buy foreign cars!

Sure we would. But we’re doing that already, from automakers who aren’t looking for a handout. Who had been thriving as they built cars on American soil and are only now starting to see sales declines as consumers react to the worldwide crisis by keeping a stranglehold on their money.

But my critics are a resolute bunch. They tried again.

Think of the jobs that will be lost, they argued. You think the economy’s bad now?

Once again, they got no argument from me, other than to note thousands of autoworkers already have fallen victim to the crisis.

And more are on the way:

In Janesville, Wis., the 90-year-old General Motors Corp. plant will close permanently in December, its remaining 1,200 workers to join the ranks of the unemployed.

Last week, Chrysler LLC offered voluntary buyouts to nearly all the workers at the Belvidere assembly plant to make some room for workers from newly shuttered plants.

And GM is planning to cut an additional 5,500 salaried and factory workers and Ford an additional 2,260, the automakers announced Friday.

Granted, that’s small potatoes, relatively speaking.

Those job cuts, while catastrophic to the workers and their families, are minor ripples in comparison with the complete failure of one or more of the domestic automakers.

But the U.S. would survive and, I believe, be the stronger for it.

My critics can take heart, however: My opinion isn’t likely to make much of a difference.

On Saturday, congressional Democrats, chief among them House Speaker Nancy Pelosi,  pressured the Bush administration to allow the automakers to tap into the $700 federal bailout program, and President-elect Barack Obama has pledged to support the struggling companies — as long as they start making real changes.

“I’ve made it a high priority to … help the auto industry adjust and weather the financial crisis, and succeed in producing fuel-efficient cars here in the United States of America,” Obama said Friday.

Back to the drawing board.

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