GM, Amtrak and an Increasingly Fascist America

[Big Train]

GM should be a private business. Amtrak should not. A national high speed rail system should be part of public infrastructure. So should energy, healthcare, and a REAL national bank (as opposed to the "Federal Reserve" which in reality is neither.)

So do you feel the same way about air travel? Should the government own Southwest and Delta? Airlines are a barely profitable business in the best of times.

[ELVIS]

BT...

You've got an alert mind...

Thank God!

[GAR]

Paul was 100% correct when he said GM should have been allowed to fail on it's own...

I could go further, but these are NOT federal issues, Period!

It's not just about cars, it's about the cars' credit companies such as citigroup, travelers' and ditech.. which over here in Los Angeles we are seeing Ditech.com commercials for the last couple months coming back on TV at a rediculous pace.. they were at one point like Countrywide throwing loans as much as 125% of the property value.

I doubt they're doing 123 percent loans anymore, but I think about GM going down when some of their ancilliaries caused the problems we have to begin with and wonder maybe they should have gone down and taken wall st. with them, even if the old folk's diversified 401K's went with them.

11 trillion dollars, if you had a choice to cover one or the other (autos banks and insurance, or cover 401K's losses) to me that's the question but it appears to me as if Obama's trying to do both and neither has worked all being wasted.

[GAR]

What a massive oversimplification. Firstly, when we talk about "Japanese cars," we're really only talking about Honda, Toyota, and MAYBE Nissan (Datsun) and Subaru.

I had a Daihatsu man, that thing was killer: one of the first four valve per cylinder engines, good body styling, strong engine only 1.5L, good 5spd comparable to my Honda Preludes..

You can't get 'em anymore in the US but theyre still made in Japan. Awesome acceleration.

[FORD]

So do you feel the same way about air travel? Should the government own Southwest and Delta? Airlines are a barely profitable business in the best of times.

That's a fair question, and I'm not honestly sure how I'd answer it. Obviously you have physical differences between air travel and a rail system or even interstate highways. Airports are under the jurisdiction of local governments, (and to some extent, the federal government) and you don't have roads or rails in between to maintain, just open sky.

I definitely would not want to see Boeing go the way of Chrysler or GM though. They may have moved their corporate offices, but they're still a huge company in this state, and if they went out of business, the impact on Washington would be comparable to how GM and Chrysler's non-existence would impact Michigan.

[GAR]

Wanna bet the Chinese military is already in the planning committee stages to redesign the military-spec Hummers with a lower steering column?

[Igosplut]

I had a Daihatsu man, that thing was killer: one of the first four valve per cylinder engines

Wrong again GARgoogle, Peugeot did it in like 1915

[ELVIS]

Even I knew that...

But i'm a car guy...

[ELVIS]

Wanna bet the Chinese military is already in the planning committee stages to redesign the military-spec Hummers with a lower steering column?

The military spec Hummer is built by AM General. GM only bought the name and built a Hummer like body around their crappy trucks...

China did not buy anything AM General related...

[GAR]

Perhaps, however if GM has license to build the design I expect that license to continue through to the new owners wouldn't you think so too?

[FORD]

They have the license to build civilian vehicles only, dumbass. And even the GM Hummers were really nothing like the military version anyway. They were built on a regular GMC truck chassis and basically cheap plastic crap otherwise.

[GAR]

Tell that to the Chinese, this is just the beginning of another international incedent not forseen by the Democrats who bought GM to give it away to the Chinks anyways.

The end result tells you all one needs to know about it! It's just the foot in the door for them to sue for further military hardware design contracts and anything else GM had to do with the gummint.

[GAR]

They can say they were misled, and want to back out of the deal, until they get the concession to build the military version.

Do you doubt Obama or Clinton will intercede for them?

[FORD]

Fucking racist idiot

[GAR]

Chinkasocialist pawn!