GM has been turning towards the mainstream public with a Youtube & internet campaign in an effort to convince to get the government to give them that bailout that they so desperately need. They cite scary figures such as 1 in 10 people in America having a job that is tied to the auto industry, 3 million jobs to be lost over the next year and additional 2.5 million down the line. More of these informative tidbits can be found at GM’s new campaign website where they “tell it like it is”. If you’re a Corvette, Camaro, Mustang, or any other domestic fan, head over to that site to load up on some ammo for convincing people to support this bailout.

It’s true that millions will be affected if they go down, but I think it’s something that must happen. This situation reminds me of the wildfires that we have recently had here in California. While they really are catastrophic events, they are still natural events that will happen once or twice a year in those areas, no matter what. We can’t keep handing out these packages to companies that get themselves in trouble; however I do realize that the bailout for the banking industry was absolutely a necessary move. The difference is that Fannie Mae and all the other investment banks were on the verge of causing a huge bank run (everyone rushing to withdraw money) which would lead to many banks with depleted cash reserves – which means no more loans for everyone. So in essence the bailout was necessary to stop a massive collapse of the financial sector – this is a fact that is agreed on by almost all economists. Yes, its true the companies got themselves into this position in the first place by trying to create money out of nothing (housing prices are always gonna go up right guys???), they did it in a way that makes them indispensable to this country (almost makes you think they planned it that way…).

The same cannot be said for GM. Except in this case, it’s not even entirely their fault, which makes it even more sad that we should withhold a bailout from them. The credit crunch has affected them in a big way making it hard for them to get money on their own, the UAW continues to suck the life out of the company, and they are still trying to shake the stigma of producing inferior products. Detroit has started churning out some quality cars such as the Solstice and Cobalt SS, but they are still being weighed down by that awful organization, the UAW. Since they’ve already started to produce some decent cars, I’ll bet they start turning a profit as soon as they shake the union. Even if they fail, it will be a necessary pain that we’ll all have to go through in order to eventually lead to a better economy.

A bailout plan isn’t even good for the GM fans out there, the money would u ndoubtedly come with a bag of stipulations that will force the company to have a lineup with higher average MPG cars (which usually means less sports cars). But hey, what do I know… its not like I’m studying econ or anything What do you guys think?