What should the Obama administration do about the Big 3 automakers?
-
1 votes
Mandate the use of carbon fiber auto bodies
The weight of cars and trucks can be drastically reduced by the use of carbon fiber bodies. Costs are high when volume is low. so the administration should require the use of carbon fiber bodies as a condition of bailout funds.
-
3 votes
Convert Detroit Big 3 to Mass Transit Production
The Portland (OR) Oregonian carried an excellent editorial on Dec. 29, '08, "A 'bail-in' instead of a bailout" by Tim Smith suggesting that the Detroit Big 3 accept our tax bailout on condition they switch to creating "nationwide urban networks of streetcars, light rail and other public transit systems." This would bring us back to the excellent public transit we used to have before cars proliferated.
<www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2008/12/a_bailin_instead_of_a_bailout.html>
Running the system would also create a lot of jobs.
We could also do with revamping interstate and intercity rail transport since Amtrak is currently a poor substitute for the excellent nationwide rail service we used to have.
-
3 votes
Change payroll tax to payroll credit
Instead of bailing out the big 3, bail out the little companies. Change the payroll tax to a payroll credit--give businesses incentive to provide jobs, with a higher incentive for higher wages up to ~120K or so.
Make up for this cost by imposing a large carbon tax.
Jobs give people money. People with money buy things. Buying things makes our economy run.
Think of how many talented engineers at the big 3 who have probably had brilliant ideas crushed out of them by bureaucracy and the need to protect the cash cow products their shareholders demand they build. If this talent is set loose on the marketplace, and small startups had help hiring them, think of all the innovation we might see? That's how you jump-start this economy.
