Interesting if pointless. They don’t have much pull either way do they? It is a waste of good dollars, though.

What the auto companies need to do is communicate our need for them. Most folks are worried about their job and their lives. Bailout money for the auto companies looks so much to many people like another lousy bailout for an industry that wants to die and is stopped from being able to through government intervention. Never mind that the banks are getting 28 times that amount and abusing it. Never mind that these companies support a hefty chunk of the economy of the mid-west and then some. It’s another bailout of an industry that can’t cut it in the real world. Economic darwinism is ingrained into the American psyche like nothing else and for those of conservative leanings even more so.

For those so inclined I have a simple question: What would Germany do if Daimler and VW were in a similar predicament? How about Toyota, Honda and the Japanese government? Korea let a few auto companies live and let some die because there were too many chasing too few dollars. Is that where we stand? If we let these companies die as they are for whatever reason then what industry will take up the slack? It’s not like Microsoft, Boeing or Intel is going to hire these auto workers.

Once these companies are gone they are not coming back. The capitol and power of these companies is on the shop floors and engineering design offices. The point has been made that it isn’t in the executive suite. I’m sure I’d see some of them come into the aerospace field and would welcome them but wouldn’t it make more sense to keep them at work?

Which brings another suggestion: a ban on political contributions by automakers, auto executives, and the UAW and its executives, while the loans are in effect.