The Price of Fascism

Please note: When I write this here, I am not doing it to bad mouth anyone at all. Least of all the UAW or the General Motors or Chrysler workers. It simply is not their fault that the companies that they work for were horribly mismanaged for many years and are now not doing so hot.

As much as I like the fact that my Father did not lose his retirement from General Motors and gets his medical benefits via the UAW’s program that they set up for him. I must acknowledge the truth and the truth is that General Motors and Chrysler were bailed out by the United States Government. One of the tenets of fascism is, in fact, the mingling of private industry and Government.

When the mingling of private industry and Government take place a price is paid. First of all, a company loses its freedom to conduct business as it sees fit. Second of all, the people of said Country usually pay a price in their wallets. Such as the case with General Motors, which happens to be because General Motors was and still is a poorly managed company.

The story via The Detroit News, which is a Conservative/Libertarian slanted newspaper:

Washington — The U.S. Treasury has begun selling the remainder of its 19 percent stake in General Motors Co.

On Jan. 18, the Treasury filed a written trading plan to sell its remaining 300 million shares of stock in the Detroit automaker. It plans to exit completely by March 2014 and said it could immediately begin selling small numbers of shares on the open market.

In a report to Congress, the Treasury said it had net proceeds of $156.4 million in January for the sale of GM stock during eight full trading days.

GM’s stock price ranged between $27.61 and $29.16 during the period, meaning Treasury sold at least 5.4 million shares, depending on the prices it received.

On a quarterly basis, the Treasury plans to disclose how many share of GM stock it has sold and will report monthly its proceeds from the sale.

In December, the Treasury sold 200 million shares of its GM stock to the Detroit automaker for $5.5 billion, or $27.50 a share.

But, of course, there is a cost:

The government needs to get $72 per share for its remaining shares to break even on its $49.5 billion GM bailout. It initially held a 61 percent stake before selling about half of its shares in GM’s November 2010 IPO at $33 a share.

At current prices, the Treasury would lose more than $12 billion on its GM bailout.

Last week, the Treasury Department said its estimate of losses on the $85 billion auto bailout fell by 16 percent, or $4 billion, in large part because of a rebound in General Motors Co.’s stock price.

The Obama administration said in a report to Congress that its projected auto losses fell to $20.3 billion, from its prior quarterly estimate of $24.3 billion.

The Treasury in 2009 initially forecast it would lose $44 billion on its bailout of GM, Chrysler Group LLC and their finance arms. That forecast fell to $30 billion by the end of 2009 and fell as low as $14.3 billion in 2011.

The Treasury still holds a 74 percent stake in Ally Financial, the Detroit-based auto finance firm, as part of a $17.2 billion bailout, but hopes to eventually break even. Ally is shedding its foreign operations as part of its efforts to repay taxpayers.

I bolded some parts of the quoted text above to give you idea of what I am talking about. Up there where it says, “The Treasury”, that means really “The American Taxpayer.” Anytime the United States Treasury is involved in any sort of bailout of private industry, your tax dollars are being used to bail out said company. That is not hatred of President Obama or the Democrats, that is the honest reality of the situation.

Again, this has not about having an axe to grind with the UAW, GM or Chrysler. This is simply a explanation of what happens when Government gets involved with the rescue of two auto companies that were in fact, headed for bankruptcy. The truth is that the American people lost on this deal and lost bad. As much as I respect the history of the UAW and of General Motors, in regards to my family — I must write the truth and this my friends, is the ugly truth.

Heh: GM’s electric car sales plummet, GM blames “inventory issues”

I hate writing stuff like this because my Dad is a GM retiree. However, the truth is the truth and the truth is, General Motors is lying out of their rather large derrieres.

The Story via The Detroit News — which is, by the way, a Conservative/Libertarian biased Newspaper:

The Chevy Volt. A $39,145 green energy boondoggle that no one can afford to own. Except for Barack Obama’s rich liberal friends.

Sales of Chevrolet’s Volt fell in November, following the vehicle’s best sales month in October, while less expensive electrified vehicles gained ground on Chevy’s range-extended plug-in hybrid.

Chevrolet sold 1,519 Volts in November, a 33 percent rise over the same month a year ago. But that was only about half the record 2,961 vehicles sold in October and 2,851 in September.

Don Johnson, U.S. vice president of Chevrolet sales and service, attributed the fall in Volt sales from its record-setting tally in October as an inventory issue, felt particularly hard in California.

“Dealers are just clamoring for more,” he said of the California market, where GM sells about 34 percent of Volts and where it recently had just an eight-day supply of the vehicle. Inventory is now up to 23 days for California and about 60 days for U.S. supply, which Johnson described as “ideal.”

Volt sales through 11 months this year totaled 20,828.

Now for the real reason sales of the Chevy Volt have truly dropped:

It’s difficult to tell whether expiration of favorable sales incentives also led to the fall in Volt sales. Without special incentives, the Volt costs $39,145 before a $7,500 federal tax credit. That’s more expensive than the base prices for Toyota Motor Corp.’s Prius plug-in ($32,000), Ford Motor Co.’s C-Max Energi plug-in ($32,950) and Nissan Motor Co.’s all-electric Nissan Leaf ($35,200)

Talk about burying the lead on that story! The truth is that this is what happens when car manufactures seek money for the United States Federal Government and then proceed to capitulate to the demands of a left-wing socialist ideologue, who would rather strangle the US economy in favor of a green energy boondoggle. Basically folks, what this means is that you and I, the American people; are on the chain; not only for rescuing a failed auto company, but also a failed green energy automobile that was priced so high, that the average American could not even afford to buy the silly thing.

My friends, elections have consequences and this here is one of them. My Father will now most likely lose his pension, when GM finally does fail. All because General Motors could not bear the thought of going through a managed bankruptcy. Instead GM went to the hog trough of the United States Government and invested in a green energy boondoggle, which now, as it seems is another idiotic failure.

Please, for the sake of Liberty, next time; vote different.

GM’s jobs news is nothing more than a ruse

Great and wonderful news, right? Wrong. Just another bogus headline from a company that is about ready for bankruptcy. This story comes via MLive.com.

General Motors Co. and the state are expected to announce today that GM will create 2,000 new jobs in Michigan, beginning with up to 1,500 at a new information technology innovation center in Warren.

The automaker and the Governor’s Office are expected to make formal announcements later today.

It’s unclear where GM would add the other 500 jobs, but the state says the innovation center is the first of three projects the company will announce.

GM will invest $300 million combined for the three. The state said GM plans no major investment spending on the information technology center; it will be housed in an existing building undergoing renovation on the Warren Tech Center campus.

The center will hire 1,500 new employees within four years and will add to information technology employment already in Warren, Randy Mott, GM’s vice president of information technology and chief information officer, said in a Friday interview.

via GM to add 2,000 jobs in Michigan | The Detroit News | detroitnews.com.

This is where I am going to get accused of sounding like a Democrat or something worse.

This headline is the biggest stinking joke, since the election Barack Obama. These jobs above here? There are not jobs that anyone could do, you know, like me? These jobs are one that would need some serious degrees —- none of which I honestly have at all. So, these are not 2000 jobs for the public, like labor jobs; as the labor jobs are protected by the unions. These are tech jobs that will end up being filled by immigrants, legal or otherwise from foreign countries; who have the degrees to get these jobs. The rest will go to protected minorities, who happen to have those degrees as well.

I just have to ask aloud; how much of this investment, came from the taxpayers dollars that ended up bailing out this failed business? I really do not know if I really want to know the answer to that or not. However, what I will say is this here; the local Detroit media needs to stop with the dishonest headlines and get out of tank for the big three. I mean, do not get me wrong, I want to see General Motor succeed, as their success personally affects my family, namely my Father, who retired from that company after 31 years. But, when I see dishonest headlines like this, it disgusts me. People scanning through, think GM is mass hiring workers for the plants. Which they are not, they are hiring salaried employees, that they really do not need and doing this, will most likely make them go broke again.

It is time, that the local Detroit media started telling the complete truth about the big three.