I thought it might be interesting to repost this here and get everyone's opinions.
Here in my small city of Dyersburg,Tennessee we have several manufacturing plants with some of them tied to the auto industry.
On Friday two of the plants made an announcement of layoffs beginning in September. I believe the total people expected to be layed off is around 250 people.
One of these plants produces rubber used in cars and the other plant makes electric transformers(primarily for new construction).
The recent tax incentive that was just passed and signed by the president should help the housing industry once people understand how it works.
I believe the stimulus package earlier this year(that sent checks to all tax payers) was only partly successful and we need one more shot!
Here is my idea:
You would have many many people then buying new cars and then this money would trickle down to the factories hiring employees who make materials used in these new cars.
These incentives in addition to the election being behind us(assuming people make the right choice for president) should jump start our economy into the new year.
I'm from Michigan, the metro Detroit area, and even I think we should give up on this ridiculous push to stay out in front in car manufacturing. The Japanese are better at it. It is time we face facts and move on.
Keynesian faulty reasoning if I ever saw it. That may very well be true, but what of all the other things that people could have spent money on?
Furthermore, do Americans really need to be going into further debt right now?
Why doesn't the government just steal millions of cars and crush them.
Helps the environment and some people will be forced to buy new ones.
IRShenchmanJon: Why doesn't the government just steal millions of cars and crush them. Helps the environment and some people will be forced to buy new ones.
But...But... who will drive the cars?!?! Who will make the roads?!!?! :neo-con's head 'splodes:
WARNING: This signature violates Rule 5. Stay classy!
I've always been a proponent of aid to the poor in the form of carstamps.
Really: when has Keynesian deficit-spending, pump-priming ever truly worked?
It works all the time. It just works at making the economy suck.
Ramone: Here is my idea: Send all tax payers another tax rebate check 1/2 the amount they received earlier this year. Include with the check a notice if this check used to purchase a new car (made in the USA) then taxpayer would also be entitled to a tax rebate of say $1500 that could be given to the car dealerships as a down payment on the new car(car or truck must get gas mileage of 30 or more per gallon of gas or diesel). Announce the new car incentive to take effect Oct. 1, 2008 so car manufacturers can prepare for the increase in business. You would have many many people then buying new cars and then this money would trickle down to the factories hiring employees who make materials used in these new cars.
The argument seems to assume that the root of the current economic woes is a lack of employment. If we just force people to buy cars then that will provide employment for car manufacturers and those guys will have heaps of money to spend and then it will all be fine - right? No, no and no again. If this were true then we could:
- Start a government program tomorrow to dig 10 billion holes before the end of the month. The government could pay everyone to do it (they could quit their day jobs in order to do it in fact). - Start another government program the following month to fill the holes in again- Repeat forever and ever
But digging holes and filling them in again wouldn't be putting food on people's plate - it wouldn't be doing something they need. So employment is not the only criteria for a healthy economy - people have to be doing stuff that other people need done. And as the citizens of the former USSR discovered, the government is completely incapable of knowing exactly what people need. It can't know if they need cars any more than it can know if they need houses, door knobs for their houses, blueberry pie or band aids. That's precisely why we have market based pricing systems - to direct people's labor in the most efficient manner possible, so that they're working building products and providing services that other people need.
It appears that the markets are currently signaling that US car manufacturers are currently doing the equivallent of digging holes and filling them in again and that the resources that they are currently squandering on this should be redirected elsewhere (perhaps to silicon chips, perhaps to products to sell to the Chinese - who could possibly know - the market will work that out). Whatever it is those resources should be directed to, and whoever the entrepreneurs are who figure this out, you can guarantee the government doesn't know what it is and certainly shouldn't be involved in the process of working it out...
jimmy: Ramone: Here is my idea: Send all tax payers another tax rebate check 1/2 the amount they received earlier this year. Include with the check a notice if this check used to purchase a new car (made in the USA) then taxpayer would also be entitled to a tax rebate of say $1500 that could be given to the car dealerships as a down payment on the new car(car or truck must get gas mileage of 30 or more per gallon of gas or diesel). Announce the new car incentive to take effect Oct. 1, 2008 so car manufacturers can prepare for the increase in business. You would have many many people then buying new cars and then this money would trickle down to the factories hiring employees who make materials used in these new cars. The argument seems to assume that the root of the current economic woes is a lack of employment. If we just force people to buy cars then that will provide employment for car manufacturers and those guys will have heaps of money to spend and then it will all be fine - right? No, no and no again. If this were true then we could: - Start a government program tomorrow to dig 10 billion holes before the end of the month. The government could pay everyone to do it (they could quit their day jobs in order to do it in fact). - Start another government program the following month to fill the holes in again- Repeat forever and ever But digging holes and filling them in again wouldn't be putting food on people's plate - it wouldn't be doing something they need. So employment is not the only criteria for a healthy economy - people have to be doing stuff that other people need done. And as the citizens of the former USSR discovered, the government is completely incapable of knowing exactly what people need. It can't know if they need cars any more than it can know if they need houses, door knobs for their houses, blueberry pie or band aids. That's precisely why we have market based pricing systems - to direct people's labor in the most efficient manner possible, so that they're working building products and providing services that other people need. It appears that the markets are currently signaling that US car manufacturers are currently doing the equivallent of digging holes and filling them in again and that the resources that they are currently squandering on this should be redirected elsewhere (perhaps to silicon chips, perhaps to products to sell to the Chinese - who could possibly know - the market will work that out). Whatever it is those resources should be directed to, and whoever the entrepreneurs are who figure this out, you can guarantee the government doesn't know what it is and certainly shouldn't be involved in the process of working it out...
I would not say need, but I would say want. "Needs", like food, are only high priority wants.
Apparently, both of my economics teachers should read this. As long as people think that the economy can be helped by breaking windows, windows will be broken.
Schools are labour camps.
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