Filed by Bil at 10:06 pm under Fightin' Words, Politics

I hate to talk about the economy – we all know it’s crappy, and I’m sure I don’t have much to say about it that hasn’t already been said five million times – and I wasn’t even worried about my own day job…until I read this news story:

GM to force more than 1,000 dealers to close (April 28, 2009)

Without giving too much away, I will tell you that I work for an online classified ad company. We’re more than just listings, we’re a listings, research, reviews, blogs, and forum website. A complete website. A whole website. Source of income for a large number of people. And we’re all about the automotive industry. The bulk of the money the company brings in comes from listings and ads by car dealerships and car manufacturers, many of which are GM. Imagine losing over 1,000 customers. That’s pretty significant. Pontiac and Saturn will eventually disappear, which makes me sad. Hummer will also eventually disappear, but that actually makes me happy.

Now I am worried about my job. Perhaps unnecessarily, perhaps not very worried at all, but still. I do not want to go back to working at Starbuck’s. But I also do not want to NOT have a source of income. I suppose – worst case scenario – I could go into modeling. Target print ads never seem to stop.

But worried or not, as of today I still have a job. 1,200 dealerships full of people are going to be out of work for real.

Good thing we gave GM all that taxpayer money.

With the loss of Pontiac, Saturn and Hummer, we are losing two American car brands that helped keep a spirit of youth around this country, and one brand that…well…destroyed the environment…But aside from that, a very real and very non-romantic realization:

John McEleney, chairman of the [National Automobile Dealers Association]…said many details were unknown about how the dealerships will be closed, but “137,330 dealership employees will lose their jobs, and state and local governments will lose an estimated $1.7 billion in sales tax revenue that would have been used for economic development in communities around the country.”

Cutting nearly half its workforce is, according to the powers that be, the only way to keep the company from going into Chapter 11 entirely.

Current final verdict: THE BAILOUT IS NOT WORKING.

I know it’s only been a relatively small amount of time, but if they have time to make a decision like this, then we have time to decide that this was all in vain.

The silver lining is that Chrysler is being forced to merge with Fiat if they want their bailout checks:

GM to announce brand changes (April 27, 2009)

Chrysler is just days from a Thursday U.S. government deadline to gain concessions from its unions and debtholders and form an alliance with Italy’s Fiat Group SpA or face almost certain liquidation.

Chrysler, you just got yourself a banjo orchestra and some clown-faced backup dancers.