Amen! Amen!

Politics & News Contributing Editor
Queen of Spain

My American Dream has always been leading a life where just a little more was possible than the last one... science, technology, culture, provinder... longer lives, less disease, less struggle to stay alive, more evolved behavior between people, less fear of homelessness, violence and starvation.

The thing is - we usually talk of American Dreams as 'per person' or 'per family' - but we forget that American part. The reason it works here - the reason we don't say Bolivian Dream or Congolese Dream - is because we don't do it alone. We do it as a country.

Is a Mark Twainism that a bank is a place who will loan you an umbrella when it's dry and demand it back when it's raiining?

You need an umbrella when it's raining. Lord have mercy... it's raining. 

Lucretia (aka GeekMommy)

Raising a child in a digital world, still a digital girl

I am a child of GM--my dad worked there for over 43 years. So, I am incredibly invested in what happens with this. People sometimes forget that it's not just the employees of these companies (GM, Ford, Chrysler) that will be affected, it's suppliers, their suppliers, other companies who work with these companies, and most importantly, it's entire towns. Millions of people will be affected by this and I wonder if that's not obvious enough to everyone who is against it. You think things are bad now, wait until they go under and see how bad it gets. I am the first to say that things need to change and the companies need to be more competitive and nimble, but lets not throw all of it away.

 I hope they survive. I pray that they survive.

suzi

I am for the "bailout" (which I agree will serve as a bridge loan, not a hand-out) STRICTLY in terms of employment. I think letting these companies go under and putting millions of people -- here and abroad -- out of work would be disastrous.

HOWEVER.

I am really angry at the way the car companies have been managed.

I HIGHLY recommend reading David Halberstam's "The Reckoning." (About the rise of the American auto industry, the unions, and Japanese auto manufacturing.)

The REASON that Chrysler needed a loan almost 30 years ago is the SAME REASON it needs a loan now. Not because times got "hard," but because the organizations REFUSED to innovate. REFUSED -- actively lobbied against, in fact -- to accept that the gas-guzzling models would ultimately do more harm than good. And when consumers could no longer afford the fuel-inefficient, luxury vehicles...well.

In the 80s, they turned to Japanese cars. Just as they turned to Japanese electronics in Adrienne's example.

Now it's 2008 and instead of learning their lesson, the auto executives repeated the exact same mistakes.

The SUV culture propagated in the 90s was not sustainable. Not economically, not environmentally. But the car companies did everything they could to squash alternative-energy vehicle production.

They willfully ignored the cyclical nature of the economy and consumerism, and now they're paying the price. Except they're trying not to.

I don't want to see millions of people out of work, but I would like to see the hundreds of high-level auto executives ousted.

Maybe next time?

---
Kristy Sammis
BlogHer's Conference & Event Planner
e. kristy@blogher.com

Excellent post and you've softened my perspective considerably. However, I gotta side with Kristy on this one. Sadly, the willful ignorance of the auto executives is now threatening the livelihood of millions of hardworking Americans. Why? Pure greed. 

For decades
now, since the Nixon era actually, there has been a call to lessen our
dependence on foreign oil. How do the Big Three react to this? They
flood the market with SUVs and put out the Hummer.

All along,
these companies have had access to technology that could seriously
reduce our usage of oil and they have dawdled with it. In the end, they
took the low road that led to higher profits for the industry and the
oil companies. They should be ashamed.

In 1990, GM
debuted the EV1 at the Los Angeles Auto Show, the first car with
zero-emissions marketed in the US in over three decades. The vehicles
were marketed through dealers located in only a few regions (e.g.,
California, Arizona, Georgia). The cars were only leased, not sold.
Though demand was high, GM ceased production of the vehicles and all
the EV1's were destroyed or donated to museums or universities.

A colleague reminded me today to view the documentary, "Who Killed the Electric Car?"
which delves into the short life of this GM EV1 electric car. Asks the
film's tagline: "How could such an efficient, green-friendly vehicle
fail to transform our garages and skies?" Once again: Greed. As long as
there are still fossil fuels trapped in the earth, people will pay big
money to find it, sell it and burn it.

I hope and pray that these companies, for the sake of their employees, find a recovery solution but much of this mess was brought on by the companies themselves. 

~ClizBiz 

BlogHer Contributing Editor, Animal Concerns, Proprietor, ClizBiz

Greed pretty much sums it up, this has been going on since the 1970's. But..... we can't go with the off with their heads model because if these industries go down they take too many with them. About 239000 jobs go if they go down, the list of related industries that would face problems is as follows: iron, steel, plastics, rubber, glass, computer chips. I don't pretend to know the answers here and I don't think they should get a handout with no strings attached, but I think it will be very ugly for this limping economy if they all go down. Capitalism works well until GREED begins to rule all.

I agree they need support to be able to stay viable. I find it interesting that people want strings put on the automakers that have yet to be put in place for any of the financial bailout money.  We don't even know and have basically been told we will not be told who got the federal reserve money. 

Let's also remember that the reason the automakers made all of these big vehicles what that people were buying them, lots of them.  The tax code is written so that people are encouraged to buy them.  The CAFE standards are written excluding them so of course they made them. 

I don't think the people who oppose this out of hand have any idea what happens if these are actually allowed to crash and burn. Mark my words it will be the worst possible recession anyone has heard of and I wouldn't be surprised if over time it was called a depression. Remember this is not just the automakers but their car dealerships and service techs and financing arms and parts manufacturers and tire makers and well, you get my point. 

Kate

I blog at http://www.aftercancernowwhat.wordpress.com 

For the people who are directly affected this migth be hard to accept but this is NOT a seperate issue and it needed to happen.

It shows that companies, us, the world has been living an unsustainable life style for far too long and we all closed our eyes and were hoping or praying for the wrong thing. Kiss it better.

The whole manufactruing and commerce world needs a collapse and total rebuild.
How could we sustain what was going on. More, bigger better for a growing smaller part of the world. 

In the book 'Presence' CEOs of large corporation declare in private that the growth they promised to stakeholders was unrealistic. However positive goals and predictions were expected of them, because if they told that a growth of the rate the shareholders expected was beyond possibility, they would get sacked.

So they complied and kept their job until their performance wasn't up with the prediction and another lier was hired.

Oh, how it shows the absurdity of the world we live in.

We need another intent for the American Dream, it is NOT about having things and money, it is about inner and communal abundance and wealth and mental and physical health and good food and love.
This requires a totally different outlook and explanation about life and a total different set of actions, agreements and rules to live by.
We need to work on an explanation of what is communal and inner wealth, and have us no longer being seduced by false promises we deep down know don't serve any of us.

A New American Dream starts with ME, and my willingess to question and learn to live into a new 'we' paradigm, with different intent and different actions.
How about sharing, generosity, and letting go of 'it is all about me'.
Even in relationships we fight for goodness sake, how can we be any better anywhere else. 

What we focus on we get.
If we focus on bad depression, we will do bad depression.

If we focus on this is a way to change for the better, we get a change for the better.

Instead of panic and being fearful, be still and focus on what is possible here.
Don't go for false promises that it will all get better, the old way is NOT sustainable.

Einstein said, no problem can be solved at the level it is created.

America, create a total different dream that is humane not economic based. 
And be gentle on yourself.
This was how we knew how to act, however with all the literature we can access different ways. 
AND we no longer have an excuse for blindly going back to the past ways of greed and looking good and going for the 'having'.

So begin to change the American dream, boldly and purposely for the good of all.
I am doing it here in New Zealand, you are not alone.   

Wilma Ham

www.wilmasblog.com

You've nailed it Wilma, thanks

Kate

I blog at http://www.aftercancernowwhat.wordpress.com