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"Will the U.S. taxpayer get anything in return for that $14 billion? Of course not."

What part of "loan" do you not understand?

The taxpayer, in return for this loan, gets a repayment plan (that means they get this money back), and between 2 and 3 million less unemployed fellow citizens.

Where were you and the rest of the blogosphere when the banks were handed their massive checks to do with as they pleased? What exactly, have you done to try to get to the root of that travesty?

I cannot begin to understand why so many are so willing to lambaste the auto companies who actually make tangible things you can buy, but are so willing to freely dismiss the banking industry as victims deserving of taxpayer support.

A very large component of the auto companies' losses in the most recent months has been due to the loss of sales due to credit non-availability. Remember, credit was supposed to be more freely available as a result of the banking industry bailout.

Full disclosure - I am a GM employee. I'm proud to contribute to making the best products this company has ever made. And I am disgusted at the public reaction to this crisis, led by wrongheaded bloggers like yourself.

I am a retired autoworker after 42 years. I have worked for all 3 US companies and 2 transplants.
You need to get out of the classroom and see what is going on. The transplants get tax breaks etc. in the billions and do not have retirement and health benefits to pay. The extra profit from their vehicle sales go to Japan and then the US gov. borrows it back.
Millions of people work directly or indirectly for the big 3. They can continue working or we let them the US companies die and pay unemployment, welfair etc.
The foreign auto compainies will not have a motive to build more plants in the US if the domestic competition fails to exist.

Why don't our government bailout the employee's and assist them to become a employee owned company. Look at the money they would save if they were self regulated. They could multi-task at work, they could eliminate the Union dues and reduce that money from their wages, they could eliminate all of the money paid to laid off employee's, huge management salaries and bonus's, etc. They would immediately take more pride in the quality and workmanship in their cars.

the big 3 need to let the employees purchase vehicles regardless of their credit scores and then have the payments payroll deducted, this results in vehicles being purchased and the payments guaranteed

What good does it do to give money to these companies when no one is buying the product?

How about closing all our out of country plants, and taking care of ourselves first? Bring back jobs to the USA.

I work for an airline that is operating out of bankruptcy, and we are struggling for our very lives. Where's our bailout money?

I agree with Richard Quinn. The media and those who tell their "story" do not put the true theme. The automakers committed to pay back their bridge $14B+ LOANS where the financial does not. Yet the banks and insurers get $700B in BAILOUT. Are they paying back that $700B to us?

1st of all, there are no guarentees that the companies WILL pay the money back. 2nd, if you were reading the blogs and articles, MOST of America was AGAINST bailouts for the banking industry. That fiasco in the mortgages was brought upon the industry by the Congress mandating loans for those who were less qualified than usual, then Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac buying up these crap loans. If these 2 government "companies" didn't buy the loans up, as required to, then we certainly would not be in this mess that we are now.

As for the Big 3, I come from a family with 7 retired GM UAW employees, so I know of which I speak. The cars being built today are MUCH better than those 10 years ago, public perception is killing them. However, as a GM employee you have to be honest and say that even though the credit crunch has hurt GM this quarter, GM has been bleeding money for YEARS. Yes, the UAW has given up raises and has given some concessions, BUT unfortunately what is going to happen is the wages are either going to roll down about 40% to a little more than the new hire wage of $14/hr, or in a bankrupcy case, wages could fall even more. The salaries of the CEO and the board have no bearing on this, so please don't give me that class warfare crap. Even so, if they make $1/yr that does NOTHING for the company....it is just a dog and pony show. GM's problems are long and deep, no matter how you look at it HONESTLY, bankrupcy is the only viable option. By doing that, they can reduce liabilities, re-work contracts, clost facilities both production and dealerships, cut the work force, both blue collar and white collar. If that is eventually what happens, which I think is the case, Wagoneer should lose his job as should a dozen or so of the top people.

Why is there so much hatred against hard working Americans? I pulled of 50 bins of motors with a chipped ear to put out quality. They changed the process. That is one example. I could list so many more like going through a box of screws to make sure we had good screws for the shift on my break. Our motors were suppose to last 10 years. Our motors lasted on the average about 20. Those motors were overdesigned on purpose. I am proud of my work. I worked for the auto industry for 31 years. When our work went to China, the engineer from China said to me that he could not match our quality. Yet we still lost the business. The rich keep cutting our wages and pocketing the difference. Did you know that we pay the transportation costs to and from China? I do know some good businesses that work hard for their people and their people work hard for them. Now I am retraining with money I saved from my job to go back to school. I qualify for TRA but they have mostly certificate programs. They will not pay for college for me. The next job will get a devoted harworking and intelligent person and I will get a company I can believe in.

Not enough credit has been given to the role the high cost of fuel has played in our economy. This past year's historically high gas prices has directly resulted in a record number of jobs and homes being lost. Of all the many that have lost homes in my area none have been because of adjustable mortgages.Most families have gone broke this past year at the pump alone. Then the increased cost in fuel was passed on to the consumer through increased production and shipping costs of every single consumer product imaginable.The average family cut back this results in even more jobs being lost. And while we are doing the happy dance at the pumps OPEC is planning more production cuts. It would cost the equivalent of 60 cents a gallon to drive an electric car. The electric to charge could be generated by wind or solar power. Bail us out of our dependence on foreign oil. Use some of those billions to get some infrastructures set up, get some solar and wind projects going, Create clean , cheap energy, create badly needed new green collar jobs. It would be a win-win situation all the way around. I just read a book called The Manhattan Project of 2009 by Jeff Wilson. I suggest anyone concerned about these things read this book.

It's real simple people, America can NOT sustain itself without domestic industry no nation can. The automobile industry is the strongest thread of American industry. The collapse of the automobile industry would not only only lead to the collapse of the American economy but most assuredly America as you know it.

As we all know by now, the American automobile industry is directly and indirectly responsible for over 3 million jobs. They are also responsible for 50+ billion dollars a year paid into the American government in form of taxes and social security etc. If the American auto companies go bankrupt then America as a whole could be next.

Get the myths out of your head people. Foreign owned manufacturers do not produce safer or better vehicles and have not in over 20 years. The Japanese are the masters of Marketing Campaigns (including paying off auto review publications) and thats all you are buying when you buy Japanese, not a better vehicle.

Tracey,

You obviously have been mislead when it comes to auto sales.

No one sells more vehicles than General Motors. So you definitely can't say no one is buying the product...

http://online.wsj.com/mdc/public/page/2_3022-autosales.html#autosalesE

The big three have been the biggest Tax payers for many many years.they had a lot to do with winning the WW2 with there productivity.No ones buying them Dumb dumb statement,GM still out sells Toyato and for beats Honda and Crysler many others.The big three are among the first to donate when a disater hits.Gm led the way with the catalitic converter and air bag.They have ON STAR that has saved many lives including my daughter,and no one has anything close to that.If the big three goes down many of you will also,heard of the domino effect

I feel that the auto industry bailout should be done by the oil companys after all they are dependant on the auto industry for their hudge oil profits, not our government.

PETER COHAN YOU NEED TO GET OUT
MORE.

Maybe the Big 3 should Merge and save the American Dream, and every employee should take a paycut, Corp office should take a hug pay cut they are the ones who screwed it up..and get rid of company cars also

Somebody, anybody, explain to me why the Big Three are made to beg for a loan while billions were dished out to the likes of AIG and Citigroup. We are talking about an entire industry strapped for $$$ compared to mere companies. Why do AIG and Citigroup get handouts while GM/Ford/Chrysler have to prove themselves for a LOAN???????

Maybe the Big 3 should look into Merging together.
Corp offices should see huge wage cuts & cut out the company cars. Cut employee wages by 1/4 better than being totally screwed.
Fire the CEO's of all three

Mr Cohan, maybe you ought to get your facts straight for once. Did you even bother to read the plan that GM submitted? For such a know-it-all business consultant, do you have any actual KNOWLEDGE of auto dealers franchise agreements and ho hard it is for GM to close brands? Do you have any knowledge of how the S. Korea government saved KIA from bankruptcy in 1998 and merged it with Hyundai, and kept Daewoo going until GM bought it? Have you ever actually LOOKED at what GM products fuel economy figures ACTUALY are? (In most segments GM is the leader; it just lacks a Prius.) Or does it make you feel good to just constantly pound on GM? Good for the consulting business to point out the incredibly obvious, huh? Did you predict AIG would go down this year? I would bet not.

I work in a unbais company that gets different cars for testing. All you guys need do is come over and see the products for yourself. We have a Chevy Cobalt SS a $24 K car. We also get some Import products in the shop. The Congress needs to come over and see both cars and see why GM are in the Situations they are in. I say Big 3 start over again. Get rid of the Union. You can't survive paying someone $50 an hour sweeping floors, or can't fire a person for coming in drunk.

I say let the big wigs be bopped down to peon level for a change and work for pennies and learn to live on fixed income and forget the greed and high wages and perks. Let's get back to the basics and see if lack of greed can cure some of the problems.