On Friday, President Obama declared the controversial bailout of the General Motors Co. and Chrysler LLC a success and the white house is convinced that due to the bailout, the country has averted an economic disaster.
It was not just GM and Chrysler that were effected by these bankruptcies. President Obama stated in a recent visit to a Chrysler plant, "If we had done nothing, not only were your jobs gone, but supplier jobs were gone and dealership jobs were gone, and the community that depended on them would have been wiped out."
The automakers plan to make a return to public markets soon and are determined to prove that this great "rescue" was not a disaster. The Wall Street Journal reports that a Chrysler plant in Sterling Heights, MI will not close as expected and is even going to add a second shift to meet improving demand. Of the 334,000 jobs lost in the bankruptcies, 55,000 jobs have returned to previously laid off employees and employment rates are on the rise.
It's going to be a road full of struggle for these automakers to get back up on their feet and finish repaying the $60 billion from the bailout, but had the government not intervened, the repercussions may have been catastrophic. People don't consider how greatly these industries affect areas of the United States. Had these corporations completely gone under, even more jobs would have been lost. Not to mention the towns built around the suppliers plants and the dealerships would have been lost forever.
1 comment:
I like this topic because I haven’t heard about the bail out of the auto industry in a while and it is still an important issue. It also makes me glad that the car companies are planning on paying back the money they were given by the government. This may be a sign that we are back on the way to a surplus budget like we had in the 90’s. Yet one can only hope since the jobs are still far in the negative zone compared to a few years ago.
Additionally, although I support Obama and his policies I think that a third party opinion is necessary to show that the effort is working. Also I think it would have been helpful to have a better explanation or at least prediction of what would have happened had the Obama administration not undertaken the bail out program. And then it is also important to consider if the fall of the auto industry is just part of fair capitalism since other countries make better cars or an unhealthy occurrence that would cause widespread in markets that are now still functioning properly an healthy economically.
Finally, I like your use of quotes and the name of your blog.
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