Government Help For Car Industry Is Misdirected

Sunday, 11. January 2009

I’m confused! I could understand the bailout of the banks, we can’t allow the banking system to collapse. And whilst the VAT cut was never going to have a significant effect on the economy in terms of kick starting expenditure it was a small step in the right direction but why are the Government listening to the car manufacturers? Of course it’s terrible when people lose their jobs and making loyal and good workers redundant is one of the hardest things I have ever had to do in my life. I remember, at the age of 23, making people redundant in their 50’s knowing that after 30 years in the same company, they were unlikely to ever find work again, then going home and sobbing my heart out. But sadly it goes with the territory. Some companies survive and some fail and with failure comes redundancy. But the Government cannot selectively support car manufacturers whilst they sit back and watch thousands of jobs go at Woolworths, especially when these car manufacturers have been creaming it off it’s UK and European customers for years. In my training videos on leasing benefits I take you off to an American website that sells new cars and the same model cars are being sold, in many instances, for around the same number of dollars as we buy them for in pounds sterling which means in the middle of last year when the pound was stronger US cars were half the price of UK equivalent cars, so were we subsidising them all this time? Or were the manufacturers ripping us off? If the Government bails out the car industry with a cash payout what good will it do? They have cars to sell so they should do what every other manufacturer is doing and drop their prices in order to clear the fields of stock they have produced and get a grip on costs. Let the Americans bail out the car industry that we have been subsidising for far too long. By Graham Hill