12-04-2008, 10:15 AM
Ted King wrote:
The amount of money the auto industry in the US is asking for is roughly equivalent to the amount of money the US government pays out every year - and has paid out for many years - for farm subsidies. Where's all the hand wringing about that? It's odd that at a time when we are giving HUNDREDS of billions of dollars to financial services corporations and banks with practically no accountability, that giving a small fraction of that to auto makers is eliciting so much more concern. If those who think it is a bad idea to give money to the auto makers are right then we will have thrown away about the same amount of money given away every year on farm subsidies, but if they are wrong then we may save a LOT of jobs for no more than a fraction given to bankers and financial outfits or as much given in just one year to prop up farmers (and the majority of that farm subsidy money goes to large corporate farms).
Public reaction to an auto bailout is based on name recognition. Archer Daniels Midland may suck more out of the treasury than all the auto makers combined but no one buys an Archer; at least not like they buy a Buick.