Chrysler told the government today that they'll need a few billion more bucks of that bailout money, thank you very much. GM is expected to follow suit. As far as I'm concerned, if these guys are going to get my money through the government, then they don't need me to buy their cars. Particularly when there is a US auto manufacturer that is not lining up at the government trough. Yep, I'm a Ford man now.
If it's just a savvy attempt to differentiate from the competition, Ford needs to put a little more effort into publicizing their ability to keep their company out of the ditch without Nancy Pelosi's help with the steering. After congress largely ignored the public outcry over the lack of transparency in the latest libation to the gods of bureaucratic waste and inefficiency, I am more than willing to support corporations that are not benefiting directly therefrom.
Unlike the financial industry that followed congressional pied pipers into a long series of bad investments, the Auto industry has no external antagonist at which to point. While I might not like the fact that the financial industry is being bailed out, I have to admit that there is a certain element of fairness to the government helping with a problem that it had a significant part in causing. There is no similar dynamic at work in the auto industry bailout. GM and Chrysler were both in deep, deep trouble before the sub-prime mortgage debacle ensued. Now they want to bury their mistakes in our tax dollars. Rather than reward these corporate mismanagers, we should all make a point of supporting companies that can actually survive in a capitalistic economy.
There's an ad agency somewhere that needs to pick up on this.
No comments:
Post a Comment