The Automotive Kings are Dead - Long Live the Kings!

posted by Bill Arnett @ 12:57 PM Permalink

Well, while Senator Richard Shelby (R-Industrial Killer), waxes pontifical and lectures the country on the irredeemability of the American Automakers it should be remembered that he represents a state with three foreign car manufacturers, Hyundai, Honda and Mercedes-Benz, who no doubt will look favorably upon the Senator for the obstructionist position against a Big 3 American car bailout, and who are no doubt rejoicing and cracking open the champaign bottles to celebrate today. After all, how many times can you have an American Senator suckling the teat of Big Foreign Business as if his lips were superglued to that teat?

"Chapter 11, Chapter 11!" seems to be the only alternative offered by persons with vested interest in the failure of American businesses, the GOP. The GOP will do nothing that would even lend itself to the possibility of rescuing an American company while Democrats are in charge.

Just as the last year has proven, the GOP has a sufficient number of obstructionists to stop any progressive legislation in an attempt to make the Democratic Party look weak and ineffectual. And they are willing to cut off their noses to spite their faces, for I believe in the truth of Paul Krugman's assertion that people are not going to buy cars from a bankrupt manufacturer or one entering bankruptcy.

What incentive is there to buy a new car from a company that may no longer exist next year? Especially when a guy's senators and congressmen can get monstrous donations to their reelection campaigns for essentially sitting by and doing nothing other than speaking out against any bailout from our carmakers.

Granted, our Big 3 dug their own graves with gas guzzling SUV (no doubt built at the behest of Big Oil - you scratch my back and?) and their steadfast refusal to build the cars of the future, hybrids, electrical and hydrogen, for which they no doubt have many possible vehicles already on the drawing board. But why bother when Big Oil, which owns more politicians than anyone (Look at the Iraqi Oil Wars) can count on government bowing to it's control until it's too late to take any action, so once again it will be the foreign car companies that will lead the way on new innovations, both because the Americans won't, and because they will (and do) realize there is no long term success to be had building cars that continue to use oil.

But in the meantime Big Oil and foreign manufacturers will continue to make ever greater profits until a profitable business model can be had that will minimize those entities that will, as all cornered beast will do, fight tooth-and-nail for their survival.

Regardless of the costs of buying all those politicians.

Just think how much Hyundai, Honda and Mercedes-Benz will be able to jack up their prices to purchase and, more importantly, the exorbitant new charges for servicing those cars. And as the inventory of American cars and parts to service them the prices can only go up, for there will be ever more politicians awaiting their handout to continue their obstructionist ways.

Ah, what a wonderful time to be a member of the millionaire's club, the U.S. Senate where, by god, when you buy a politician that S.O.B. stays bought and can produce more lickspittle than is comfortable to contemplate.

NOTE: And let's not forget this golden opportunity for a handful of politicians to go against the better interests of the country and view this as a "union-busting" opportunity, despite the fact that it was the unions, after WWII, that set this country on course for its most profitable decades in American, and probably, human history and the spreading of wealth from the bottom going up and not the thoroughly discredited "trickle down theory" of republican economics that has bankrupted America and is close to completely destroying our financial health - or what's left of it.

Labels: bailouts, big oil, bush hypocrisy, Congress, Conservatives, conspiracy, corptocracy, corruption, disinformation, propaganda