by Misty Cahal

Created on: December 03, 2008

Today (Wed Dec 3, 2008), a "top Chrysler executive" stated that a carmaker collapse could potentially cause a depression. The three top US automobile manufacturers, better known now as "The Big Three", all have their hands out-stretched looking for the US tax payers to "bail them out". They are asking for $34 billion dollars in federal loans to help them continue business due to slow demand for new cars; 2008 was reportedly their worst year for sales in 26 years.

The Big Three are proposing a hike in gas prices yet again to help secure funding for these loans. Daniel Sperling, director of the Institute of Transportation Studies at the University of California, Davis, and co-author of the forthcoming book "Two Billion Cars: Driving Toward Sustainability" states that the federal government should set a base price for gasoline of $3.50 per gallon and set a variable tax on it to maintain that price. According to Sperling, the variable tax would generate more than $17 billion dollars in one month which could be used to fund the federal loans being requested by automakers as well as for other uses. In order to access this money, US auto makers would be required to produce a large quantity of affordable, yet durable, fuel-efficient automobiles.

The big question here, which is on the minds of millions of tax payers in this country, is this: why should we help them? When it comes down to it, smaller businesses, maybe less "vital" businesses wouldn't get bailed out because they were mismanaged or overpaid their CEO's and couldn't afford to stay in business so why should automakers be any different?

These companies report losing money since 2005 and 2006 so why is there a sudden, dire, need for this emergency funding now? If they knew they were losing money in previous years then maybe they should have been tightening their belts before now. Sticking your hand out for taxpayer's money isn't the answer here. As I previously pointed out, smaller businesses wouldn't get squat. I own a small PC repair business and if I am losing money there's simply no way I could get any "bailout" money! It's time for these companies to start taking responsibility for their spending and lack of self-control. When you have the top CEO's of The Big Three showing up in Washington in their personal private jets then there's obviously a problem.

Many will argue that if these companies file for bankruptcy that the unemployment rate is going to take a turn for the worse; that's nothing but a smoke

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