Detroit Three gain market share in 2011

This year, for the first time since 1988, all three Detroit automakers have gained market share in the U.S.

Click to expand...

There are a number of factors which contribute to the automakers becoming profitable again, including the earthquakes in Japan, which decimated the Japanese auto industry, and the Obama bailout....... Ahh, the Obama bailout. I want to talk about this one.

The Obama bailout of the auto industry is something that I was rather torn on. After seeing the results of the bankster bailout, I was more than a little pissed when Obama decided to bail out Detroit. However, one cannot argue with results here. OK, OK, I can admit when I am wrong. Should the government intervene and attempt to prop up or otherwise save a failing sector of the economy? Generally, I still say no, but now with more nuance in my answer. There are times when government intervention is needed, especially when the end result is that sector paying back the money to the government, becoming more profitable, and yes, saving jobs too. OK, I will give Obama the credit on that. I still don't like him, but even a broken clock works twice a day. Well done, Mr. President.

Yeah, yeah, you can call me a flip-flopper now.

Article is here.

Danarhea,

Sometimes I find myself in the same circle of thought, but this occurred to me the other day.

Why did we have to bail out the auto manufactures?

Was it a supply and demand problem? I would say no here. They were supplying, the government did the clunkers program. People were buying cars...maybe not American, but they were buying cars.
So, there was demand for cars, just not the ones we were producing for the price, or maybe there was another reason.

Was the management and production system in place the most efficient? We know this answer. The management and unions were not producing the cars at the lowest labor cost which made them more expensive than imports.

When the government bailed out the auto industry, they bailed out a mismanaged industry. Not one that was being torn apart by a downward economy and then the demand going away. Yes, the economy did slump, and the demand went down, but a strong company and a successfully run company would have survived. Since the auto industry was so internally mismanaged during the nation’s years of economic growth, it could not sustain in a down turn in the economy.

In my opinion, the companies should have been sold off, the resources bought by new or existing companies, and the workforce rehired. It is hard to say though how many companies would want to try and grow a business in Detroit with the unions.