Ive heard many people here saying that GM and Ford filing for bankruptcy will criple our economy. My question is how? If you believe that explain why please.

 

Bankruptcy for the big 3 will NEVER EVER happen. The US Government would step in and loan or grant or help the Big 3 out in some shape or form. It would be in the best interest of the Government to do so.

 

it would be very very bad. not only would you get several hundred thousand unemployed but you would also get shut downs of hundreds of other subcontractors which means more unemployed. it would also stagnate the economy quite a bit from lack of large money transactions. but i won't happen.

 

recent news suggests bush will not aide any of the big 3. although that could change any day.

 

if it came down to it he would because he'd have to

 

You guys are talking like GM and Ford are already totally doomed, you don't become the 1 and 2 largest automakers in the world by not knowing how to deal with some bad times. Although a 4.8 billion dollar loss in the 4th qtr alone is pretty discouraging. Big Mike is right the government will never let them go bankrupt.

 

I live in Dayton Ohio and the local gov. here did a study to see how many jobs was related to the GM and Delphi plants in Dayton. They found that there was around 10,000 active emps. at GM and Delphi in the Dayton area. Their study revealed that for every 1 job in the GM and Delphi plant that another 4 jobs outside was linked or tied to these jobs. Other cities have done similiar studies and found that number to be right on. So what that means is that if GM and Delphi goes under that their 350,000 active work force would be out of work and another 1.5 million that supply/support these jobs would also be unemployed. That is just at GM, now add Ford into the mix and it could be around 3 million middle class workers out of work and add them onto the current unemployment. Now if they are broke and can't pay for the retirees then add another 1 million older people with at their ages maybe with health problems that medicare/medicade would have to help take care of.

 

thats scary.

 

no doubt it would be bad, and it would take some time to recover. However people are talking like it would be the end of civilaztion as we know it.

 

Believe it or not our economy can survive quite well if GM and Ford *both* went completely under. There are many options that become "opened" once either files for bankruptcy therefore you'll never see either go completely under. The industry will recover since there are many other manufacturers who would be willing to open factories in the US just to fill the void of lost market share.

400,000 jobs were lost a few years ago in the IT community...everyone was affected by that right??? It's very surprising how many jobs can be lost and have NO affect on the economy at large even with the economy in as bad shape as it was. Google for "lost jobs" and "job growth" to see just how many jobs are lost and created each year. Total numbers are usually well into the millions created and hundreds of thousands lost. e.g. 5 million created overall, but 200,000 lost in a particular industry.

I'm betting both GM and Ford have "final solutions" that rely on bankruptcy protection to undo many contracts, divisions, dealerships, etc. which will shed much of their financial issues. They will remain, but they will look entirely different. i.e. GM consisting of only two or three divisions.