Detroit has long been a major source of pride, as well as economy, for America. Or as Chevy would put it; Detroit has been the “Heartbeat of America”. However, with the current economic crisis Detroit has been beaten and bruised much like a heavyweight champion that has hung around the ring for too long. Both G.M. and Chrysler have already received a total of $17,400,000 and are now saying that they need more in order to not be forced to file for bankruptcy.
This is obviously a major national concern because according to the Center for Automotive Research (C.A.R.) the total impact on the U.S. economy if the big three (Ford, G.M. and Chrysler) were to shut down would be disasterous. It would cost the nation almost 3 million jobs in 2009 and would reduce the U.S. personal income by over $150 billion. The Obama administration has repreatedly used the fact that 600,000 jobs were lost last month in order to spur along the stimulus package. That is 600,000 from across the nation in all spheres of activity (including the guy that shows up to work late every day).
While that is terrible if the auto industry were forced to go belly up and quit they would be able to essentially sustain that pace for five months if the rest of the economy were all peaches and cream. But speaking of peaches and cream lets not paint too much of a doom and gloom picture here. This scenario is the worst case disaster plan. This is under the assumption that Ford will completely fold up and quit which is not the case. Ford is currently debating if they even need any government funding, they want to see if they have a chance to survive this on their own. Also Chrysler and G.M. are in bad situations, but that does not mean they are going to simply quit. They will cut certain lines (like Saab) or reduce the number of plants they have but that is a far cry from just quiting. So for now, lets take a collective step back and try to evaluate this from a standpoint of pure reason. The news throws out terms like “lowest in 30 years” or “Worst since 1974″ like they are beads in the Mardi Gras parade but all that means is that my parents, and many many other people, have lived through worse than this and lived to tell the tale. Certainly things could get worse and I am not encouraging everyone to stick their heads in the sand but simply to look at this in a broader historical context.
-Job Tennant
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