i strongly believe we should not bail out the big three i dont care if they need it they really don't all of their ceos make enough money to be able to take a cut and i feel bad for the uaw's but we need to practice free market and have them learn from there lessons just like a little kid who yells at there teacher if they dont get punished they will do it again the next day .Printing more money n bailing everyone out will cause inflation which will further lead to the value of the us dollar to Lessing.Already real wages have stopped growing, and we will eventually face severe inflation as our dollar falls on foreign exchange markets and foreign suppliers take advantage of the collapse of our manufacturing base. Also if we give them the money how do we know we will have jobs and it will better the economy theve had to restructure way too much and still havent made things right. I also think if they wanted to realy bad they could use there own money and fix there own problems look at us home owners we had to learn the hard way none is hellping us.

All of a sudden the situation that we are not expecting to happen already hit us and that is the economic mess. It seems that everyday a new American industry is asking from the government a bailout just to keep it afloat. In addition to this, not just the financial industry is in need of bailout but also the auto industry. But President Obama has dropped the idea of having a single "car czar" empowered to handle the politically sensitive task of revamping of the auto industry. Instead of naming a car czar President Obama has decided to form a government task force that will oversee the restructuring of struggling auto industry. The task of determining when and how much of a cash advance to give to Chrysler and GM in the auto bailout will fall to Timothy Geithner, the Treasury Secretary. It has been said that allowing them to fall into bankruptcy is not off the table. Ford has insisted that it will survive, but only wants lines of credit available if needed, and unlike its Detroit based contemporaries, has not yet asked for a cash advance of any kind.

You raise great points, in fact, most of the responses I read have good points. First, this problem is way too large for anybody to put "bullet-point" causes and then opine their version for the cure. This problem goes into so many different industries that are the backbone of this Great Nation, but the one thing that continues to raise it's ugly head is GREED! Bankers, CEO's, Middle management, Elected Representatives, Jack-ass union BA's, and ultimately the workers themselves; all of us can point fingers to one another as the cause, but it really falls back to EVERYONE!! It starts with the officials we elect to represent us politically and financially. If we all take the time to research the integrity of the people we put into these extremely high power offices or manage the funds our retirement accounts are tied too, our country will begin to turn back to the good. These problems are NOT going to fix themselves with socialism, they aren't going to fix themselves by throwing money at them, they will fix themselves when WE as a collective group of people who are sick and tired of the status quo stand up and vote these A-holes out of the offices they have corrupted. Lets start there and work our way through the rest of this mess.

STOP the bail-outs or actually giving our money to failed businesses that will likely not repay as they are bankrupt. Cheney, Greenspan, Bernanke and Paulsen should all be locked-up for crimes against the public. Perhaps a special roomate could be arraigned for our finest. Roger

Let the American automobile companies go through bankruptcy. They need to restructure debt and divest themselves of outdated labor contracts. They also need to cull management. If they can't compete with the Japanese and Europeans on a level playing field then any infusion of money will be wasted.

We buy everything else from overseas. Why should cars be different. If a domestic auto industry can provide cars that we want to buy and do it profitably, fine. Otherwise, the automakers should file bankruptcy and let the courts and creditors sort it out.

who cares about american auto industry go japan cars the best made cars in the world

While there is a lot of truth in Lataif's comments, I believe that the comment ( Lataif: The credit crisis–induced recession (and the earlier, unprecedented spike in gasoline prices) could not have been anticipated by the auto companies) is disingenous. The uptick in fuel prices has been predicted for years and was not a suprise to anyone (just the rate of increase). Given the issues with milage going back to the 1970's and beyond, this was clearly a situation of a lack of forsight on the automakers part. Just compare the non-US manufacturers with the Big-3

No. Bankruptcy does not mean a collapse, it means the change of the management, and this is what is needed the most, and not just in the auto industry, the current social elite has lead the country to this very law point (it was busy with fighting over power and money and forgot about the country). Unless new management comes to the country at all levels bailouts will not work.

Yes, but it should be a loan with many stipulations. 1. They need to shift focus to alternative fuels 2. Executives should receive a 20% cut in pay that will be restored once their company has payed back the bail out loan (I say 20% because I estimate that to be the percentage that is not put towards their own personal bills) 3. All company documents should be open to the public. They can become private once they have payed off their debt. 4. The bail out money should come form the 700 billion already voted on. 5. The government needs to sever ties between the oil industry and the car manufacturing industry, it's the reason they are in this situation in the first place. I agree that there will be a lot of innocent people affected badly by a bankruptcy of the big three.

The only auto companies that need the bailout are the "big three" although they are technically not the big three anymore. Toyota has more American content in its trucks than Chevy or Ford. The problem was greed, same as the financial sector. When you look at the product line that GM and Ford have you can clearly see that they wanted to put all their eggs in one basket, that of the SUV. Despite predictions of fuel shortages (and you're kidding yourself if you think they didn't see that coming), environmental concerns and the fact that aging baby-boomers don't need a big rig they just want cars, these guys still focused on SUV's. Why are Honda and others not having the same problem? That is the question. These companies, and banks made greed based bad decisions and now we, you (I'm Canadian but if affects us too) have to pay for it. You cannot give mortgages on a wink and a handshake and you cannot continue to pump out vehicles nobody can afford to drive and not think you will have a problem down the road. I feel bad for the workers who do their best everyday to make the best product they can. They will be the ones who suffer here, not the CEO's with their insance pay. Good luck to us all.

At the current time, we are beyond pointing fingers at who caused the problems in the economy and how the auto industry got itself in trouble. Yes, they exhibited inefficiencies, and yes the union contracts were unmanageable, and yes the costs to supply health care and retirement benefits were not budgeted on very intelligently. But the fact of the matter remains. If the government does not do something soon to help out the big three idiots, then we are going to be witness to something that none of us have seen in our lifetime. All of the crybabies out there that do not want their taxes to go up are likely the same people that will lose their jobs and be unable to feed their families because of their ignorance in not realizing how far reaching this problem is. What we are seeing in the economy now is unlike anything we have seen. It is even unlike the Great Depression. It is a 'Perfect Storm' of problems and if the children on Capital Hill don't stop squabling over the details and the red tape, it will be too late. Our 401k's are going to be 101k's and the unemployment rate will likely rise to 20% before summer of 2009.

UAW = Unemployed Auto Worker