Should the United States congress bail out the "big three automakers"?

If I started a company that sold a product, say $50 battery powered woopie cushons that nobody buys and I went out and hired 1 million people to work in my company then shortly after I ran out of money because nobody was buying my stuff. Should I ask for the tax payers to give me money so that all those people don't get layed off?

Instead of having those people making all those woopie cushions that nobody buys it would make more sense to have those people not work and just pay them their salaries out of the tax payers pockets to reduce material waste, energy consumption, and global impact.

Of course as the owner of the company I can promise that I will improve the woopie cushions by investing a small portion of that money to develop a solar powered woopie cushion. Would you want the government to bailout my business?

This is what I saw we should do:

Screw the Big Three. They don’t know what they are doing. Even if they come out with an electric car or a new hybrid nobody would buy it because it has the Ford or Chevy logo on it, which nobody trusts and buyers associate with lower quality. If we are going to give anyone the 25 billion to jump start our auto industry I say give the money to a company with a world renown reputation for producing futuristic and technically innovative products that everyone wants to buy. Products that raise the bar for all competitors in the market. I say give the 25 billion to Steve Jobs to make an iCar. You know people all over the world will be waiting in line to buy one!

Nobody wants all those people out of jobs but what is the alternative? Should we spend billions every year to keep them employed at a job that makes something nobody wants to buy? Imagine if we had to support all the companies like the big three who are in financial trouble with a lot of employees? Imagine how high everyone's taxes would go up to support such a system. All the rest of us would be in jeopardy of losing our house, not affording medical bills, can't send kids to college, etc.

Even if the big three started making the kind of cars that consumers wanted don't you think that japanese and european car companies would have the same kind of cars and people would buy them instead of the domestic?? Why would anyone buy a ford hybrid when they can get a toyota hybrid?

We should not support lemon companies with no futures. If you believe in evolution then you can understand this. Companies that cannot adapt and have undesirable traits will and should fail so that other companies who are more responsive, innovative, and adaptable can rise to fill the vacuum left by the downfall of companies like the big 3.

Let the dinosaurs die, they had there time on the earth. The age of the mammals is here.

Yes, because it will help bring down the system! The system is too sick to survive, so anything that helps to destroy it will allow us to start to rebuild sooner.

The automakers are a great example of a horribly inefficient business. Spending many billions to prop up the candle makers or car makers will only put off their day of reckoning. They can't survive and will be back in 6 months asking for another 50B, and they'll have yet another great excuse.

Note: giving the inefficient businesses money will have to come from productive businesses, either now or in higher taxes later. It isn't just created out of air, as our masters in DC would seem to imply. Rewarding the inefficient and punishing the efficient is a great recipe to help bring about the end.

We need The Collapse. Bring it on!

It is a loan that will be payed back with interest. Same thing that Chrysler did years back. The banks will be bailed out with some of the money never to be payed back. Double standards for the wealthy.

PS- The auto companies did NOT force the American buyers to purchase SUV guzzlers. They supplied what the buyers wanted. The gas prices doubled and the buying market changed. Thank you Bush and the oil barons.

For too long the BIG "3" were warned to shape up and build higher quality cars but they ignored the simple facts that the Japanese and other foreign car manufacturers in the market place did just that so now after all their stupid decisions, their insatiable greed and their lack of decision to listen to the people who put money in their pockets and the fact that they were so sure their lives would be so cushy-comfy, I say let them pay the price of their stupidity. This is turning into a global depression, mark my words. The end is near!!! I feel very saddened for all those who will lose their homes, investments and livli-hoods. We will all be on the same level soon.

I'm not going to voice my opinion either way but we need to remember that the big three haven't been handling there business like they should have been.

One example would be that they have only recently started to invest in the construction of a feasible electric car that could be built for consumers, despite the big oil crisis.

My opinion NO.

Before asking for bail out money they need to start taking off from the top dogs first. Give them self's a pay cut. I bet they would save tons of money just by doing that first.

PS. Their the ones to blame for why their doing so bad, no one told them to make these big gas eaters that no one is buying anymore. They need to just do a big recall on those suckers and re use their parts to make better gas efficient cars that will save people on gas.

Those employees should start looking for other jobs now! I do not want a bail out.Thats my tax money and the last thing needed is more gas guzzling cars.There are tons of cars.Most of my neighbours have at least 4 running cars.We are poor and we have three.One for each person.Hey my Dad used to make train cars.Now trains are basicly obsolete.Cars are overproduced.We do not need more.It is time to give it up.They can merge and meet demand with one company.They need to be hybrids too.

Perhaps a better question to ask is "should we subsidize inefficiency?" Bailing out the auto makers will not solve their financial woes and will only hasten our country down its current path of bankruptcy. It is unethical to bail out failing industries with tax payer money. Setting a precedent of bailing out faltering industries will lead to the total collapse of our economic system. Furthermore, these companies will not cease to exist if they are not bailed out. They will simply restructure under Chapter 11 which will allow them to renegotiate their contracts with their unions. Hope this helps.

they should take them over, nationalize them