Mark Steyn: We're in the fast lane to Bailoutistan

“See the USA in your Chevrolet!” trilled Dinah Shore week after week on TV.

Can you still see the USA in your Chevrolet? Through a windscreen darkly.

General Motors now has a market valuation about a third of Bed, Bath & Beyond, and no one says your Swash 700 Elongated Biscuit Toilet Seat Bidet is too big to fail. GM has a market capitalization of about $2.4 billion. For purposes of comparison, Toyota’s market cap is $100 billion and change (the change being bigger than the whole of GM). General Motors, like the other two geezers of the Old Three, is a vast retirement home with a small money-losing auto subsidiary. The UAW is AARP in an Edsel: It has three times as many retirees and widows as “workers” (I use the term loosely). GM has 96,000 employees but provides health benefits to a million people.

Read it all.

Posted in * Economics, Politics, Economy, Politics in General, The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007--, The Possibility of a Bailout for the U.S. Auto Industry, The September 2008 Proposed Henry Paulson 700 Billion Bailout Package

3 comments on “Mark Steyn: We're in the fast lane to Bailoutistan

  1. Irenaeus says:

    [i] No one says your Swash 700 Elongated Biscuit Toilet Seat Bidet is too big to fail [/i]

    Although some people, including some politicians and entertainers, may need [i]supersized[/i] bidets.

  2. libraryjim says:

    My dream car is a extended length Jeep Wrangler, green with tan top and interior (not the new 4 door, but the one with the space behind the back seat). But I have to wait until my Dodge Caravan (2006) is worn out, which will be quite a while yet, I’m hoping for 10 + years of service from it.

    If Chrysler goes under, I fear I’ll never get one.

    Jim Elliott
    Florida

  3. libraryjim says:

    Yes, I know this was a thread on GM, but I think it was relevant.