RANDOM RANT 2

GM, Ford and Chrysler are so dim-witted and self-serving they deserve to fail and witness other manufacturers take their market share. If you can't compete because of ridiculous union contracts, crappy quality and awful forecasting then too bad! They love to wrap themselves in the flag when looking for a handout at the same time they produce more and more of their vehicles in Mexico, Canada and China. In contrast Mercedes Benz, BMW, Nissan, Honda, Subaru, Toyota and Hyundai are rapidly expanding operations in America and many have been doing so for some time. They are literally investing billions of dollars and producing tens of thousand of jobs but you never hear about that. Toyota and Hyundai may have made the largest investments and led the way in job creation in recent years. To illustrate, Toyota built an $800 million plant in Indiana and a $1.6 billion plant in Texas in the last few years. They are paying the same wages but have avoided the union contracts and have built more efficient plants largely in the south. Unfortunately, both McCain and Obama support bailing out the "Shrinking 3" because they will do anything to buy the votes of Michigan and Ohio voters. In the end, the government should not reward bad behavior but should remind the automakers that they operate in a free market where you can succeed and you can fail...But I wont hold my breath since there is less and less "free" about our market and it is largely the fault of the government and their "everyone wins, no one can lose" mentality and policies. Finally, if we provide state sponsorship of industry by bailing out the “Pathetic 3” and ignore the concept of an international level playing field in the face of foreign competitors, who have we become? China.