$10 billion to save GM - the Titanic has set sail yet again

As many of you know the government of Canada has decided to bail out GM Canada to the tune of approx. $10 billion.

Whilst I recognise the largest corporate bankruptcy for what it is, there is no way on this Earth, the gov't of Canada should be parting with our tax dollars to the amount of $10 billion !

And today Prime Minister Harpers announces

"Clearly taxpayers will get some money back when the day comes that we begin to sell our equity share, but to be frank we are not counting on that,"

Harper said. Google News

If there was ever a time an international corporate megasoar was to bring down a government, surely that time is now. The numbers are mind-bogglingly large, the concept of so many dollars being thrown at essentially is a dead duck company is so bizarre and freak-ish, it does all but confirm the end of the world is just around the corner.

Why not just give the employees a simple pay out ? Why not create a new company that creates a decent product, not vehicles that are gutless and prone to break down ?

The Calgary Herald's Mark Milke concludes the cost of the bailout, if added to the average cost of a GM vehicle would be $14,705; Calgary Herald Now I'm not a great business leader by any stretch, but even to me this makes no economic sense. Even if sales remain constant, there is no way Canadian taxpayers will ever recover from this.

If anything this gives Canadians an excellent opportunity to look in to the corporate world and see how it directly influences government policy. I wonder how many phone calls and back room meetings it took for Stephen Harper to bend to the wishes of his buddies at GM Canada ? I wish I could have that kind of influence on the prime ministers office !

The loss of 10,000 jobs in Canada would eventually be dealt with, especially if that $10 billion was invested in retraining and some entreprenurial programs. You can bet some of the 10,000 have some excellent ideas on how build a better wheel or how to build a better vehicle.

For the record my last vehicle I ever owned was a GM vehicle. It was a leased vehicle and it had a really bad habit of not running at all on hot days, I finally gave it back to GM with a curse attached.



The taxpayers of Canada should not be shouldering the largest ever corporate bankruptcy. If Harper believes it necessary, his reasons must be related to avoiding a complete and utter economic meltdown. If this is the case, then bailing out GM is not going to stop such a meltdown, in fact it is going to perpetrate such a disaster even more. Harper is so entrenched in the corporate world he simply cannot see this reality. This bailout could have been stopped by the NDP, Liberals, Bloc and Greens, had they all joined together to stop Harper at some point in the last six months. Instead, we the tax paying citizens of Canada have been pushed to the brink that much more by an ineffective gov't and mutually beneficial sad and pathetic opposition.

If there is any true opposition left in Canada, surely they must call for a vote of non-confidence in Harper's gov't and take us to yet another election - do it quick before the ink dries please !

As a society we have to recognise this a positive sign the days of car ownership are starting to run short. The symbolic place the automobile has in our society is changing; the personal freedoms we associate with car ownership are changing. Stephen Harper recognises this and by investing such a grand amount of tax payers dollars in to the sinking ship of the automobile industry, he too has announced the day in the life of the automobile has reached its sunset.