Ralph Nader opposes $50 billion loan from feds
The Detroit 3 are pushing hard for $50 billion in low interest loans to keep factories running, build new ones and create alternative powertrains. Presidential candidate Barak Obama has already endorsed $50 billion in loans and Republican nominee John McCain has signed on for $25 billion in loans already guaranteed in the 2007 energy bill. If Ralph Nader were elected to office (won't happen), he would be against such a loan. Nader told a group of supporters in the Detroit area that "tax payers should not be played for a sucker," and that decades of bad decisions by automakers means that no such government assistance is deserved.
GM spokesman Greg Martin countered that Nader was basically a non-entity in the big picture, pointing out that the loan would help quickly get more fuel efficient vehicles on the road. U.S. Rep. Joe Knollenberg from Michigan remarked that Detroit automakers could be paying 15-20% in interest rates without the government loan, which would be pegged at 4-5%. We're not experts on the subject, but we're pretty sure a loan with a 20% interest rate is a bad idea, and it's not the kind of rate you want to pay if you're competing against Toyota.
[Source: The Detroit News, Photo by Alex Wong/Getty]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
oldraven 2:08PM (9/08/2008)
F**K YOU, Nader! You killed the Corvair! I hope you choke to death on a pretzel, you putz!
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mike 2:59PM (9/08/2008)
F him?????????????
GM makes bad cars, Wagoner still makes 15 mil a year, interiors are cheaper than ever and yeah F Nader.
naggs 3:17PM (9/08/2008)
i have said it before and i will say it again, no one is more personally responsible for global warming than Ralph Nader
oldraven 4:13PM (9/08/2008)
@mike
"GM makes bad cars, Wagoner still makes 15 mil a year, interiors are cheaper than ever and yeah F Nader."
GM makes bad cars? No, they make large cars. They also make a lot of small cars. They make more cars that achieve 30mpg or more than any other automaker out there. Every post-apocalypse GM has a stellar interior. We already know GM and FoMoCo are dumping all of their cash into developing fuel saving technologies and small car/engine programmes, even at the disadvantage of their marketing departments. Wagoner did take a huge wage cut, as did most top level GM executives when the crunch hit, though I agree that they got their full salaries back way too early. If you company's not out of the woods yet, neither should your wallet be.
Someone else said domestics have been building fuel efficient cars in other markets but don't have the foresight to bring them here. What rock have you been living under? How many plants in the US are being retooled, or are scheduled to do so, from truck/SUV production to European designed compacts and fuel efficient models? Ship them over now? Have you missed the Saturn lineup completely, which won't make a profit any time soon with the exchange rate as it is. Importation doesn't work, in this case.
Mercedes ran Chrysler into the ground, so don't lay that blame on Detroit. And now that Cerberus has hold of them it's just a matter of time before they end up as Jeep and a bunch of other bits and pieces sold to the highest bidder.
Randy 4:23PM (9/08/2008)
I agree. F Nader! He forgets that it was the Governments lack of protecting US business interests (as previously mentioned in a long winded post) after the imports started arriving that are largely to blame for the US auto industry having to play catch up. They caught up and went beyond the damn imports, now let's make sure we keep them.
I can't believe Nader is that foolish on this issue!
George 4:58PM (9/08/2008)
Ralph Nader is a great man. Everybody bashing Nader on this forum knows nothing about him or what he has done and is coo-cooing F-Nader like a pea brained parrot. I might be asking too much from some, but don't judge the man if you don't know his accomplishments.
He would hate GM because they tried to kill him.
Taylor 7:58PM (9/08/2008)
No matter how much y'all want to F Nader, he has a good point. Why is the US Auto market in this situation? How come the Japanese and other automakers around the world forecast today's situation of high gas prices and need for smaller cars? Why were US Automakers only focused on pushing out SUVs despite gas going from $1.00/gallon 8 years ago, to $3.50+ now?
This is a question that needs to be addressed or we will be in this same situation 10-15 years from now. Regardless, if the US government has to bail out the automakers, then the US Auto's have failed in the "open market". And as such, if they want help, then all the CEOs should be fired.
BowserUSC 3:08PM (9/09/2008)
You forget about a little something called free trade. It's not the government's responsibility to protect the car companies. It's their job to be able to compete in the market, and if not, fail. That's what true republicans believe, but most of them are just money grubbing fat cats who only look out for the man with the big pockets.
BowserUSC 2:16AM (9/10/2008)
By the way, my comment was directed at Randy, who apparently has no clue what the government is supposed to do. It is not the government's job to protect US business interests. If you think that then you are either a socialist or communist (not that either is bad but i assume he's not one) because only those forms of gov't would even think about protecting an industry from competition.
And they haven't caught up yet. If they did then they wouldn't need a bail out.
Erik 2:10PM (9/08/2008)
Nuck Fader. What a dousche.
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knifetramp 5:07PM (9/08/2008)
Agreed.
No one in the US has worked harder to send jobs overseas. This guy is a walking air-born cancer.
xspeedy 2:17PM (9/08/2008)
I'll take Nader's side on this one. Can't keep bailing out companies run by idiots. While the rest of the world was diversified in their product portfolio, the domestics dumped all of their money into trucks and SUVs. A bailout of the US auto industry is not the answer. If the US auto industry has never properly invested in building good small small cars, who says they'll spend the government's money doing it?
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Red 2:31PM (9/08/2008)
I'll side with you.
But it's an interesting dichotomy. The automakers made inefficient vehicles, the public bought them. The automakers continued to make inefficient vehicles because the public bought them, so the public bought more. It was a neverending cycle until the public was forced to shift priorities. Now the automakers want help to create the vehicles they should've been creating to begin with.
It's interesting because in a way, the public is just as much a reason for the current situation as we blame on the automakers. Perhaps the public SHOULD cough of the money, but then again, why should I, someone who's never owned or been interested in SUVs, have to bail someone else out because of the choices they made? Hmm...
blotto 2:45PM (9/08/2008)
OMG can't believe Nader's still around!
Darth Nader FTW!
Richard 2:52PM (9/08/2008)
Well, gas price-wise, America has lived pretty much in its own world until lately. That "false" market is what allowed F150 and Escalade sales to flourish.
So, crashing in comes the real world and the Big 3 want help, of course.
Wait until Obama is elected. He'll close our markets and we'll be further protected - and isolated - from the big bad world and its free market forces. (Funny, we used to be the capitalists)
akatsuki 3:34PM (9/08/2008)
There is no dichotomy. They invested short term instead of long term. That is what it comes down to. And so, they should be seen as being bad managers, and bad for business. If they are going to bail them out, better to require that all of management be cleared out. When the best you can do it Bob Lutz, well, you need new blood entirely then.
oldraven 3:57PM (9/08/2008)
Well, a loan is not a bailout. The only thing they're getting bailed out of is high interest.
GeoSB8K 7:19PM (9/08/2008)
While I am all for low interest loans being given to fellow Americans for things like Hurricane relief I could not be more against providing this kind of assistance to poorly run companies. Our economy is based on open competition which means some companies will fail and new ones will prosper. It is in those new companies that create jobs and foster growth after some of the decay has been cleared. If these companies make it they need to make it on their own. If they can't we have new and exciting companies, e.g. Telsa Motors, that might in time take their place. When the gov't steps in it is not letting the market run its course and by doing so adversely affects new growth in the marketplace. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is a different story since those were always Govt sponsered companies. GM, Ford, etc. are not. And Nader needs to get his azz a decent suit.
catgirlshyla 2:19PM (9/08/2008)
Someone shut this man up. He's the main reason why I can't own a Toyota Aygo or a R34 Nissan Skyline GT-R.
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catgirlshyla 2:22PM (9/08/2008)
Damn enter button...
Add: If this donkey hadn't taken a cheap shot at the Corvair, we'd at least be driving around in more Fuel efficient cars right now. But noooo.....Thanks to this ****-monkey, cars have to be over-engineered to the point where we had a SUV boom.