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Possible Solutions For Auto Bailout Not So Difficult

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By SHERRIE HESS-ANDERSON Guest Column

The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 28, 2008

I have heard a lot of chatter about an auto bailout now being addressed by our government.

I also have read results of surveys that conclude that this bailout is extremely unpopular among us Americans. The economy has now replaced politics and the usual "who what's his-her name is schlepping now" as the usual topic of conversation during Thursday morning golf and general business lunch banter.

Everyone is concerned about the state of our economy now that it has reached the crisis level. This is really just business as usual in our country. More than five years ago I read a book by a well respected real estate expert that I checked out of our local library. I can't remember the exact title but it was something like "Real Estate Prices on Steroids." The writer was the real estate expert for the Wall Street Journal. She predicted the current economic crisis we are experiencing right now.

We Americans have absolutely no excuse for not being informed. But since we are a nation of people who only react after a crisis, we are where we are. Sunday at church I asked people whether they read the paper. You can guess what the answers were. So to those of you who are still choosing to be informed and keep our democracy intact, here is my proposed solution on the auto bailout.

The question I think should not be whether we should bailout the American auto industry, but the question is, "What's in it for us!"

Lockheed-Martin was a direct manufacturer-supplier-retailer and the auto industry has a

If we give the auto manufacturer a loan you have to ask yourself, why the heck did we bailout the banking industry? Why can't the banks loan them the money? Perhaps the solution is for the auto industry to bail themselves out of this mess. Perhaps the best solution is for them to pool their management resources and merge. It would eliminate some jobs. In this economy that's likely to happen anyway. I suspect that getting rid of just one CEOs salary and incentives would put quite a bit more back into the kitty. I have to say here, that I told you so!

I wrote several years ago that the stockholders needed to revolt against the money packages that CEOs and upper management of each corporation were getting. But, again, we Americans never feel the hand of God; we always have to wait for the foot. However, thinking that they are willing to bail themselves out is insanity. Like most people in power they won't let go unless they are forced to. That means a government bailout is probably the best solution.

So what I propose the government do is to go ahead and bailout the auto industry and then have a team of military officers who I know from first hand experience know how to cut out the fat in an organization. These well trained military personnel will be charged to oversee and approve all personal company expenditures.

We all know that corporations should be doing this kind of fat cutting on a consistent basis. But many of our large American corporations believe that only the lower echelon of workers should have to fly economy class. Like many of us, they haven't learned to ask the very basic question those of us who have had to work with a small budget have learned to ask: "Do I want it or do I need it?"

Next to come is the "What's in it for us?" solution. For every new car sold that gets 25 or more miles per gallon in America, the car manufacturer must put $500 into a state college scholarship fund in which the car was sold. One thousand dollars for every car that gets 15-25 miles per gallon and $1,500 for any car that gets less than 15 miles per gallon. We get higher tax revenue by getting a better educated, better paid next generation. This is going to be really important since our national debt is going to be outrageous.

We need our next generation to be higher paid than us. This will also help us compete in the global market. This scholarship fund would continue until the amount put into these scholarship funds equals the exact amount of the bailout plus equal fed reserve bank interest rates (which at time of writing is 0 percent). This proposal would also encourage auto manufacturers to put more emphasis on more fuel efficient vehicles.

The first place I would personally look to cut corporate costs would be with all those Washington D.C. lobbyists. I heard a statistic that said that there are 70 registered lobbyists for every elected official in our nation's capital. Talk about overkill.

You know what to do next, cut this out, highlight the parts you think are important, send it to one of those elected officials and then stop asking me why I'm not guest writing for this paper anymore. I work in sales which takes a lot of effort (a great deal more in this economy and our market here in central Florida is particularly difficult) and I wrote a book along with six re-writes till I got what I thought was an okay version. Now I know why some people don't do press junkets. By the time you get done with the darn thing you never want to hear about it again. Let alone go find an agent and do a synopsis for a publisher.

Go ahead, be heard! And do it with a smile on your face, it makes everyone wonder what you've been up to. Oh and the next time an auto salesman tries to talk you into something that goes 0-200 in less than 60 seconds tell them what I do, just say "No thanks, I already have a bathroom scale at home that can do the same thing!"

Sherrie Hess-Anderson lives in Sebring.

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