"Sure, it would have been better, if a US company had bought Chrysler instead, assuming there was a US company willing to take the risk, and that actually knew something about making cars. "
A US company, unfortunately a hedge fund, DID buy it from near bankruptcy. Fiat buying what they did not own probably did make them a lot of profit. Billions!
That the UAW finally gets the money they are owed by the Corps is good. It IS their money. Employees have had all that docked from their pay. Part of their negotiated pay package, STEALING from them, as so many corps have already done. Corp funds, declare bankruptcy, split the funds among the top management, let the PBGC, if that is the acronym, pay a 30 year retiree half what he was contractually obligated to get.
Company controlled Pension and Benefit fund is not at all good. Most UAW funds were company controlled. THEY decided, with high interest and stock returns, that they could spend the contributions from employees, because the "FUND" was fully funded. Market takes a 10% down turn, they were billions short.
As to Putz, we don't really owe anything to China, no more than we do to Fidelity, or other investment firms who also buy US Treasuries. They BUY Treasury Notes. They give us a billion of money they need to invest, we give them a note saying they can get it back when it matures. Should rates go up or down, if they redeem early, sell, actually, they can make money, Vice-versa, rates go down, that note is worth less, unless held to maturity. When they buy US Treasuries, they are betting that they will at least keep up with inflation, and that they are guaranteed repayment at maturity.
China does not own US, they have about 1 trillion of 16 trillion of US debt. Hardly our masters. And, then, if we have to repay, we give them 1 billion, we wipe out 1 billion OF our debt. A wash.
Why can not any of you understand this? Everybody says we owe China TRILLIONS. We do NOT! There is only about 6 trillion owed to England, Germany, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, and our own Mutual Funds, and rich people who hold the majority of Federal Debt.
ETC., ETC., ETC, You never learn. Your priests preach that to you. The Heathens own us, and the entire South is in that school. Few sane people on this Board. All bigots, but bigoted against other thing than another sect is. Weird fucking people down there in the South, and them holy rollers up in the North don't have too many more functioning brain cells, either.
George
Gordon'
"Gas in the USA costs about half of what it does in most European countries (population 700 million) and it costs about the same as in the poorer countries where a car is a luxury."
Gas in the US is taxed for road maintenance, and a few other things, like lucrative salaries for those who rule the road. In Europe, I do believe, it is taxed, in part, to pay for NHS. Am I correct? If you do not drive and buy gas, you are still covered?
Here, you pay, period. We very rarely allocate taxes to what they were designed to alleviate. We put a rise in the Turnpike fees, but part of that has to go to mass transit, which I don't use, buses not trains.. First, they are for profits. Mass transit is for sustainability. Try to pay your own way, but if you increase the fare too much, people stay away in droves.4
Almost all the European countries are small. 300 miles about the largest? Curious that the steam train developed in a country that no point was over 100 miles to the border, yet so it did.
US is 3,000 miles wide, vast areas that would provide no revenue to passenger trains. It is not an expensive way o travel. I brought my GD from one place in VA to home for 61 bucks, back to school for 51 bucks. Dime a mile, more or less, and sit on your butt and read or whatever. Pertneer cost you that to drive.
