Letters
Re “U.S. to ease GM into bankruptcy,” June 1, and “GM seizes chance for fresh start,” June 2
So after giving GM $30 billion of taxpayer money, the government wants to leave GM’s day-to-day operations in the hands of some of the same geniuses responsible for the debacle?
That makes no sense unless one’s brain is paralyzed from fear of that old boogeyman: “government control.”
The Obama team seems to have a handle on how to run the country; I bet they could find competent people to run a car company. And at least they would be accountable to the people.
Lucy Fried
Los Angeles
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If our federal government can hand an additional $30 billion to GM -- having given billions to AIG and the banks and spending billions more on a pointless and failed war in Iraq -- then the U.S. surely can spare $25 billion to help California.
To be sure, I believe the Republican voters of our state are responsible for our economic woes. But this is no different than the legions of shortsighted executives who steered our banks and our auto, insurance and other industries into a ditch.
As a Democrat who did not vote for Proposition 13 or other anti-tax measures these last 30 years, I don’t see why California’s poor, young and unemployed should suffer when so much money is going to prop up private-sector businesses.
Bruce R. Feldman
Santa Monica
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GM should get out of the business of making cars. It should focus on what Americans really need: green technologies, trains and light rail. Leave the making of cars to its Asian and European counterparts.
William DuBay
Costa Mesa
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Preserving GM is the worst thing the White House can do for our automotive industry. Bloated, intransigent and in decline for decades, GM appears only now to take its long market slide seriously. Its own attempts at cultural change have been halfhearted.
In rescuing GM, the Obama administration damages its own goal of creating a leaner, greener and better American auto industry by keeping an old-industry dinosaur on life support.
GM has no preordained right to exist in the face of its repeated failures.
Take it apart in bankruptcy and encourage the development of new, innovative auto companies from scratch, corporations without antiquated business practices or fossilized views of the industry and its markets.
That’s the road to a rebirth of the American car.
Gregory Dyas
Simi Valley
