Tuesday, November 18, 2008

The Big 3 Auto Makers and Innovation

Mish has a typically good and fiery rant, but I found the most interesting part of it to be the video below...

Watch the video here

It's only three minutes. Not only is it a pretty cool video, but it proves that companies like Ford can be incredibly innovative. Just not on American soil.

A bankruptcy of these companies would be a blessing. Although it would wipe out shareholders and create enormous pain for the U.S. government through the PBGC, the restructured company would have the chance to innovate again. Maybe even in America. Any bailout will just prolong the pain - it is basically a transfer of money from taxpayers to UAW workers and pensioners. One could argue that the government should be helping out these parties, but if you insisted on the POV, it would frankly be better to just write workers a check, rather than flush the money through the existing wealth-destroying engines that are the Big 3.

1 comment:

hoss said...

Loved the video... especially the finale- [paraphrasing] "Sources in Dearborn [say] that they would love to build a plant like this in America, if ONLY THE UAW WOULD ALLOW IT." Nice.