Where’s the little guy in the Big Three?
Ok, I had to write something about the Big Three bailout plan and although no decision has yet been made, it doesn’t look good. Despite the facts, I think a few things have been over looked by our government.
President-elect Barack Obama has immediately started to address this issue and according to his speech yesterday he is not in support of bailing out the Big Three and he condemned them for not having a better plan.
Some expert’s think simply giving the Big Three $25 billion dollars (which is not enough anyway) will not solve their long term problems nor do they think tax payers should have to pay for this, I agree. But with the increase in unemployment rates due to the closing of assembly plants won’t we end up paying for it anyway?
The three American-owned auto companies employ 75 percent of the nation’s 333,000 total auto workers including foreign-owned companies, according to the New York Times.
So far this year GM has laid off 5,500 employees, and Ford plans to lay off 760 employees at a plant in Minnesota. All together if nothing is done soon for the Big Three auto companies, then there could be a combined loss of 50,000 jobs, according to the World Socialist Website.
The Chrysler Belvidere Assembly Plant in the small town of Belvidere Illinois is the 20th Chrysler plant to receive layoffs this year. This plant will lay off 2,400 employees before Christmas, which means those people who normally receive a yearly salary of $50 to $60,000, will get next to nothing.
The small town of Belvidere relies on this assembly plant for the majority of their employment and while these employees will receive severance packages, there are no there are no long term plans for their future. These packages are not jobs.
Obama, who I support, is not thinking about these people. He is currently assembling his financial team and is talking about a bailout package of over $10 trillion dollars, to be used towards our national debt and help us out of the housing crisis, but where is the little guy in this decision?
Republicans and Democrats agree this country needs money now and spending is something we eventually have to do, but what about spending some money on the thousands of people loosing their jobs at these auto plants across the country?
Despite recent allegations that the Union is to blame for high wages and too much employee benefits, I think the corporations are at fault. After all it was their decision to continue making SUV’s, trucks and other non-fuel efficient cars, knowing full well that times were changing and in order to stay in business they need to stay ahead of the curve.
So what about the people making the cars? Where is their bailout plan? And if the plan to refuse money then the government should think of a LONG-TERM plan to immediately help these people before Christmas. After all we elected these people, and last time I checked it was their job to serve us not their agendas.
3 years ago