If GM Falls

I am not a big fan of government intervention into business, but after reviewing the repercussions of GM falling, I think that something needs to be done to prop this industry up.

Look at some of the outcomes of just one of the big 3 falling:

• Car dealers, already crippled by the credit crisis that has sapped their customers as well as their showroom, would be forced to close. Surviving dealers could convert to imports, which are expected to recover more quickly than the domestic chains. In total, the center estimates nearly 975,000 supplier and auto-related jobs would be lost in the first year.
• On a local level, families and businesses in factory towns across the Midwest and elsewhere would be crushed, as revenues and customers disappear. The center estimates that 1.7 million non-industry jobs would be lost due to the impact on auto industry incomes.
• Tax revenues would suffer as employees lose their incomes. The center estimates the shutdown of all three Detroit automakers would reduce U.S. personal income by over $150.7 billion in just the first year, costing $60.1 billion in funds for police departments, parks, highways and other government services.
  

(Source: Center for Automotive Research)

If we lose $60.1 billion in tax revenue, then taxes will be forced on to us at an even more alarming rate than it already is and Obama is already planning to up our taxes, this would give him the justification to do that. Not to mention, that those of us in the non-auto industries will be forced to take the brunt of the taxes to prop up the rest of the economy as it is.

Not to mention the cars in the US would start to look like the cars in Cuba, none of want that.