Hey, kids, it's been a while, I know. Try not to throw tomatoes. I hate tomatoes.

I'm having a hard time figuring out our current government policy on loans, bailouts, assistance, and stimulus. Sure, I've been listening pretty hard -- I watched the GM/Chrysler loan program pretty closely, I followed the stimulus package through the House and the Senate, and I've been reading up on TARP and the changes that have been made over time to the program. The conservative side of our government finds the spending to be ridiculous, and is near mutiny over the new budget and stimulus package, but largely supported TARP and incredible tax cuts across most businesses and the top 5%. The liberal side of our government finds the spending to be required, and can be paid back, but doesn't like certain aspects of most of the funding, and largely doesn't support bailouts for the auto industry. Obama and his economic advisors don't completely agree with each other, but that's probably because his economic advisors are pulled from the same organizations that got us into the economic mess.

That being said, I'm actually pissed off today. Those of you who have followed my postings around the cars board or know me in real life know that I am a bit of a Chrysler fan. To be fair, not much in their current lineup excites me, but I am excited at the changes happening now that Daimler is out of the picture again. I do support the US auto industry, even though nothing currently produced is really on my radar in any way. I feel that many complaints about the quality or durability of the US automakers' products are unfounded or completely untrue, and are only printed due to a bias and from past experience. It's the same line of thinking that led people to think Japanese cars still sucked in the early 1980s. No one wanted to believe they were any good, ergo, they weren't. The generation that grew up with Japanese cars love and support them now. Watch this same pattern now emerge with companies like Hyundai.

Today, the headlines stated that AIG will be paying executive bonuses and option packages worth somewhere around $450 million payable by Sunday. For those who don't know why this is distressing, AIG is a huge recipient of TARP funds totalling over $170 billion. This is money given to them by the United States government, seen as a loan, but with no real timeline for payback, and very little accountability of where those funds are going. AIG is attempting to defend itself from the public backlash, stating that they have to pay these bonuses to executives, so they can keep their skills around and not lose them to another company.

Let's try not to think about the fact that there aren't really any places for these executives to go and make somewhere close to the amount of money they'd be getting at AIG. Not to mention that there was no shakeup at AIG -- these executives are the same decisionmakers that lead AIG into the downward spiral they're stuck in today. This is all true, these executives lead AIG right into the arms of government assistance, and they are still making decisions for AIG, and earning serious money from AIG.

Meanwhile, both sides of the aisle are crying foul, but Obama was the one holding press conferences.

Note the word 'reduce', and then read an article written a few hours later.

Perhaps a little more direct, asking them to block them, rather than reduce them in the future. Nevertheless, I see this as a mockery, rather than actual outrage. Congress could have easily added limits and controls to executive compensation in the TARP bill, as well as later additions to TARP, but declined due to a vocal minority stating that these compensation packages were required. I think people are afraid to stop and look at the big picture: Without government help, AIG would have died, and no one would be getting bonuses right now. These people, bordering on criminals, screwed the system, destroyed our economy, threw a very old and once well respected company into the toilet, and demand to be compensated for their "skills"? Absolutely ridiculous.

This isn't why I'm mad, though. No, the reason why I'm mad relates to that flyover paragraph above, about the American auto manufacturers.

Just a few months ago, when the year was still 2008, the biggest three auto manufacturers in the United States went before Congress asking for a loan to help them weather the current economic crisis. Due to a severe drop in sales combined with the inability to offer loans to most consumers, they were running out of cash at the worst time. Congress berated them for being slow to deal with change, for not having vehicles that Americans wanted, and for supporting a workforce that was making too much money. They ultimately denied the loans to the automakers. The Bush administration ended up stepping up to the plate to give Chrysler and GM a provisional loan until after the Obama administration had a chance to take a look at it. Ford elected to go it alone.

The US automakers, Chrysler and Ford in particular, began serious restructuring in late 2007. Auto sales were slowing down, and many changes needed to be made before they could be truly competitive. What's more, Chrysler had recently become their own company again, finally being released from the out-of-touch management at Daimler. A lot of difficult decisions were made, with layoffs, product cuts, and work stoppage. It likely would have worked if the economy didn't get flushed down the toilet throughout 2008. Their employees make a living wage, with health benefits and options against the company -- and it was far lower than they made just a few years earlier. I have never been a fan of the UAW, but they made more than enough concessions to make sure they'd keep a job, rather than tanking entire companies just to maintain earlier promises. Most of the expense of these employees has to do with maintaining benefits to those who had retired, and firing off more employees just shifts the burden to those who are left. That wasn't enough for Congress -- those blue collar workers obviously make far too much money, and the Japanese companies were doing it right, dammit!

Never mind that the total hourly cost of an employee was now within $5/hour of the Japanese companies located in the US, and the Japanese companies didn't have legacy cost to work with.

The auto manufacturers recently went back to Congress with an updated outlook with updated requests from the government. Congress and the media, especially the pundits on the right hand side of the aisle, panned the automakers for not having things fixed up in the few short months, and continued to berate the workers on the line in US manufacturing facilities. Those workers made far too much, they said, and they're bringing down the US automakers, and the automakers do not deserve more money! Furthermore, the US automakers still don't have the vehicles people want!

Over the past month, Toyota requested financial assistance from the Japanese government. A day later, Honda requested a loan from the Japanese government. Toyota was looking for assistance for their financial program, Honda needed assistance to deal with lackluster auto sales in the US. Chrysler gained market share for February of 2009. The updated loans are still up in the air, but there is at least a task force.

...

This long winded tirade is really just highlighting one simple concept. I find it really hard to swallow that these rich white guys in charge of financial institutions somehow deserve these huge sacks of money, without question from Congress and nary a peep from the American public. I find it harder to believe that they can support those people, and somehow, the people in the middle class, working in one of the few thriving American manufacturing industries, make too much. That somehow, they should move close to the poverty line to be worthy of attention from the US government.

Our priorities have shifted. I try to have hope, but as long as we continue to feed the pockets of those who don't deserve it, while not working to preserve the many companies, technologies, and jobs that are connected to our manufacturing industry, we cannot save this economy. Our economy cannot function unless there are people who can spend, and these people are the absolute pinnacle of the American consumer.