Prepare To Be Offended

Let’s take just the 25 billion being talked about currently and I get 1/3 of that, approximately 8 billion. Well I would take that 8 billion and build some plants outside this country and then ship the cars back here to the U.S.

Of course this means closing all U.S. plants in the process. However, instead of just putting hundreds of thousands of people out on the street, I would offer to relocate them to their country of choice and continue building cars for us. Naturally that means no unions and no viagra, but hey, you won’t lose your job. Look at the bright side, you may not make as much but the standard of living will be far less as well.

It is far better than letting the government take control of my company and run it into the ground, as the British did in the 60’s, I would be free of the gestapo unions and might actually turn the company around. Sure I would have to build some great cars in the process that people really want to buy, but that should be the easy part.

I’ve been think about starting a series on this blog about what I would do about any given situation. In most cases it would be if I were the President, but not always.

Given that I figured I would start off with this new auto bailout that is being talked about in congress and elsewhere. As many people have mentioned, this is going to be a big mess no matter how you look at it.

To start with we have three companies that are failing in U.S. sales. Some are saying let them fail. If they can’t manage their business then the company should fail like any other company. In principal I agree with that. However in GM’s case they are doing quite well overseas and are profitable, especially in the Asian markets. So they are doing something right, just not here.

Either way, I would give them two choices.

Option One

First if we are to bail you out, then I would require what Neil Cavuto said, the CEO and the Chairman must resign. Then I would bring in the top 20 or so non-employee stock holders (which means basically mutual fund companies) and have them search for a new board. The stock holders then vote in new management.

At the same time I would require the UAW to renegotiate their contracts and cut labor costs. They are out of control and it is killing these companies. The only problem with that of course is that the UAW has already said they won’t budge.

Option Two

The government does nothing and lets the companies fail. As bad as that sounds it doesn’t necessarily mean they shut their doors and all is lost. It means they file chapter 11 bankruptcy and the courts can reduce their debt. Possibly even force the unions to the negotiating table.

Yes, some jobs will be lost and that is the sad fact. However you cannot keep a person employed just for the sake of that person. Labor is almost always the largest expenditure of any company and why it is usually the first to go when the company needs to stay a float. Some must sacrifice so that other may go on.

So that is my view. However with a democrat congress and a democrat president there will be neither. They will hand them billions of dollars of our money and they will probably fail anyway. All the while the unions will keep their strangle hold on the companies.