Saving US Auto Manufacturing Without a Financial Bailout

Do Auto Manufacturers Need a Financial Bailout?

Not really, instead of a bailout for car manufacturers they (and the nation) need an incentive program for greener, more efficient cars, which will have a better net effect on our economy (and incidently on our economy thrashing dependence on foreign oil):

If people don’t buy cars, there is no amount of bailout that will save the millions of US jobs in and related to car manufacturing. If they’re not making cars, the manufacturers won’t recall workers or order from their suppliers. It’s as simple as that.

But there’s a pretty simple solution as well. The US government should order a complete replacement for its vehicle fleet to be delivered over the next four years. The new vehicles must be either plugin electric hybrid, pure electric, or possibly natural gas. Obviously retooling both at the manufacturers and suppliers is required to deliver this order so the government should be willing to prepay a significant part of it as it does for new weapons systems. That gets money into the system fast and creates/saves jobs almost immediately. It lets the suppliers retool as well as the final assemblers.

(h/t Jason Coleman)

Clearly the auto industry needs to have some financial, but does that mean billion dollar bailout?
As Megan McArdle of the Atlantic suggests The Big Three are fundamentally economic dinosaurs in an world thats increasingly going green and less oil dependent:

GM’s operations are not otherwise sound. They have been headed for this moment since 1973. Conservatives blame legacy costs, and liberals blame management. They’re both right. GM’s legacy costs are crazy.

Is this case compelling? You can decide for yourself?

Bailing the Big Three Out: The Case for a Automotive Industry Bailout:
Those from the domestic auto industry in Detroit, who are in favor of a $34 billion government bailout, point to this report from the Center for Automotive Research.

Reactions from the blogosphere:
The Queen of Spain has a compelling “Case for the Auto Industry Bailout”

The industry itself has released this video to make the case for a financial bailout of the Big Three:

Other Automotive Bailout Articles Resources:
Case Against an Automotive Bailout by Jack and Suzy Welch

Roundtable of opinions on the Financial Bailout of the Big Three at The Huffintonpost

Will the federal government bail out the big 3 automakers? Should the US federal government bail out the auto manufacturers in Detroit?