Republicans Taking A Stand Against Detroit Bailout?

I say no to bailout and yes to restructure. The UAW has ruined the car industry. I have relatives and friends that make more money being laid off than I do working. They absolutely get 90% of their wages when they are laid off. If you get their wages in line with the rest of the American workforce and when you are laid off draw unemployment like the rest of the work.

The retired force is a joke.

If they could restructure the waste that the union people say they deserve maybe they wouldn't be in trouble

Linda In Indiana of IN 6:53AM November 16, 2008

Imagine one solution that would revitalize Detroit and the larger economy, create

thousands of new jobs, largely eliminate the need for foreign oil, drastically reduce

green house gases, and greatly improve the U.S. transportation infrastructure. This

sounds too good to be true, but all that’s lacking is political willpower. We have

the ability to solve many of our problems in one fell swoop, what we need is the

political leadership to make it happen.

How can such progress be achieved? It can by realized by constructing networks of

Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) systems in major cities in the U.S. PRT is a public

transportation concept that offers on-demand, non-stop transportation, using small,

independent vehicles on a network of specially-built guideways (source Wikipedia).

The guideways would be built throughout a city, and are sufficiently small to have

stations within office buildings. A passenger would walk to a PRT station and enter

a waiting vehicle. The passenger would select the destination (much like using a

GPS in current autos) and sit down for a relaxing trip. The vehicle would be automatically

driven and routed to the passenger’s destination. The electric vehicles use no oil,

have no pollution. PRT systems have been studied in the U.S. and throughout the

world for decades. A pilot project (ULTra) is currently under construction at London

Heathrow Airport and will be operational in 2009. Two other PRT systems have been

planned: one in Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, UAE with a completion date of 2011; another

in Daventry, Northamptonshire, UK with a completion date of 2012.

Instead of bailing out Detroit with millions of dollars to produce products that

fail to be competitive, Detroit would be retooled to build vehicles for PRT systems.

They would be building vehicles for the future. The construction of the guideways

throughout the U.S. would create thousands of new jobs. The operation and maintenance

of the PRT systems would likewise create many new jobs. Electric power for the PRT

systems would be provided by new wind, solar, nuclear, or clean-coal power plants

– more jobs. The dependence on foreign oil would be drastically reduced as millions

of cars would be removed from the roadways. The savings in foreign oil expenditures

would be billions of dollars per year. Pollution would also be greatly reduced by

removing the cars. Of course the transportation infrastructure would be significantly

upgraded.

All that’s needed is for a major political leader to enthusiastically champion the

building of PRT. Imagine defining a mission statement as JFK did for the moon landing.

A statement such as “Our goal is to transport most employees in a clean, safe, personal

vehicle to and from work in half the current traveling time and at one-tenth the

current cost, and to do so by our country’s 250 birthday.”

Harry Webb of CA 1:10PM November 15, 2008