I just read Financial Wellness Project’s news about being laid off on Friday. Funny-About-Money has had a layoff looming over her head for weeks and weeks. Coming Up For Air’s husband’s construction company is crumbling. Real people who presumably are living their lives the best way they know how are being hit hard by the downturn in the economy. As far as I know none of these people are living in huge homes purchased on a prayer nor are they financing their lifestyles with credit cards. Nevertheless, these blog “friends” of mine, whom I’ve come to appreciate through their writing, are having a tough time in an economic downturn created through no fault of their own.
Although my visceral reaction to the news of another possible bailout, this time for the auto makers, is decidedly negative, I can’t help but think about all the regular people who work for the car makers either directly or peripherally. Not just on the assembly line but also all those men and women working in car dealerships, car part manufacturing plants, tire plants, upholstery fabricators and all the other myriad of industries in support of the auto makers who may go down with them if the bailout doesn’t happen. What about the guy who supports his family with a café whose entire clientele is those factory workers? Or the newsstand operator outside GM’s doors? A lot of us feel like telling the big auto makers to shove it. What we can’t forget is that those companies are made up of hundreds of thousands of regular people, just like us, who are trying to pay their bills and feed their families. People who were lucky enough to get good jobs, which they did well and which they now stand to lose, through no fault of their own.
I’m not exactly advocating another bailout and I agree that it has to stop somewhere. But while we are all focusing our ire on the executives with the multi-million dollar salaries and big bonus packages, let’s not lose sight of who really gets hurt when any business goes under. Some of those people are us.
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6 comments:
I agree I don't necessarily advocate a bailout for the auto industry but I'm really concerned about all the people who will be caught in the crossfire.
I don't have an answer but I sure hope that the people making decisions in Washington do.
I'm with you debtfree, it's a huge problem and I wish I had a fantastic idea for how to solve it. I've been seeing so much vitriol lately directed against these big companies that I worry we may have lost sight of who will be hurt the most if they go under. Thank you for your comment.
Thanks for the mention!
I'm with those who say (in jest??) that the gummint ought to take its trillion bucks and give every American a million dollars. That would solve the financial crisis instantly -- most of us could pay off our houses, buy new cars, pay off all our other debt, and then race to our nearest retailer and spend, spend, spend!
Problem with the US auto industry is that it's been in trouble for so long! One feels that Ford's problems are not part of the immediate "crisis" but something that's been building for a couple of decades and that's been worsened by short-sighted management decisions. Though I recognize that closing down Detroit will mean even worse havoc for American workers in all the industries that supply automakers, still...it's hard to work up another trillion dollars worth of sympathy.
I'm completely with you, funny, the big 3's problems are long standing and we've not seen much effort on their part to improve, which makes it even harder to get behind giving them a handout. Clearly that is not going to work. Nevertheless, I hate what's going to happen to all the people who count on them for support. It's really tough.
Nicely said - it's easy to focus on the macro side of the economic picture and blame the guys in Detroit. Yet, some poor guy working the line gets left out. It's a tough call to make for sure.
Thanks Matt, for your comment. I'm sure glad it's not my neck on the line. I saw a program on TV the other day saying 1,000 homes a week are being foreclosed upon in Detroit. Pretty sad.
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