06-10-2009, 03:58 PM
I'm not sure what your point is.
Part of capitalism and markets is that your investment can fail and you can get screwed.
If the gripe is that these companies got government money that I personally felt they never should have gotten, and they are still going to fail, OK. But mergers and sales, and stock and bond holders getting screwed happen all the time in our system. Sometimes mergers and sales happen the stock and bond holders do fine or get a benefit too. Sometimes companies just go bankrupt and there are no sales or mergers and the stock and bond holders are screwed too. I can't see you complaining about that.
I never thought the government should have bailed out the automakers in the first place. You can in fact fail in the free market and in fact sometimes you should fail. I saw rumors that Tesla Motors was looking to try and pick up some of the assets after a collapse. A common occurrence when a company goes bankrupt. Short term the "Big 3" failing hurts, long term a better company comes along to fill the hole in the market.
Hell Saturn is still out there and doing alright too. There are American car companies that could have potentially stepped up and filled the void, you don't know because the government stepped in and propped up something they shouldn't have. You have the right to fail and you should be allowed to for the system to work.
I'm OK with the bank bailout, that's a bit different and the news that 9 of the 19 are already repaying TARP funds with interest is somewhat heartening.
Part of capitalism and markets is that your investment can fail and you can get screwed.
If the gripe is that these companies got government money that I personally felt they never should have gotten, and they are still going to fail, OK. But mergers and sales, and stock and bond holders getting screwed happen all the time in our system. Sometimes mergers and sales happen the stock and bond holders do fine or get a benefit too. Sometimes companies just go bankrupt and there are no sales or mergers and the stock and bond holders are screwed too. I can't see you complaining about that.
I never thought the government should have bailed out the automakers in the first place. You can in fact fail in the free market and in fact sometimes you should fail. I saw rumors that Tesla Motors was looking to try and pick up some of the assets after a collapse. A common occurrence when a company goes bankrupt. Short term the "Big 3" failing hurts, long term a better company comes along to fill the hole in the market.
Hell Saturn is still out there and doing alright too. There are American car companies that could have potentially stepped up and filled the void, you don't know because the government stepped in and propped up something they shouldn't have. You have the right to fail and you should be allowed to for the system to work.
I'm OK with the bank bailout, that's a bit different and the news that 9 of the 19 are already repaying TARP funds with interest is somewhat heartening.
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It's all just zeroes and ones and duct tape in the end.
It's all just zeroes and ones and duct tape in the end.