Breathtaking Chutzpa

At the very time when General Motors Corporation's own auditors have revealed that their investigation into the financial stability of the company leads them to the inescapable conclusion that it is headed toward unavoidable bankruptcy, their Canadian president, appearing at a evening parliamentary subcommittee hearing into the auto industry bail-out, asks for a $6-billion 'loan' from the government of Canada.

One of the MPs present, a member of the subcommittee, brought up the inconvenient fact that were Canada to assent and proffer the requested sums, there would be no collateral to back-up the handover of a whopping sum of taxpayer funding. The simple fact being that when appearing before the U.S. government to plead for funding, General Motors had pledged all of its worldwide assets to secure its $30-billion loan.

Inconvenient beyond imagination. But trust them, they have every intention of enduring, of making a triumphant come-back, of re-presenting on the world stage as an enterprising giant of industry, succeeding beyond any doubter's wildest dreams. And, needless to say, at that juncture, the pay-back would be assured. Canadian taxpayer, relax, take a deep breath.

Except that the company has already consumed all of the billions it has already received and it has made not one iota of a difference to its balance sheet. It comes with no identifiable program in hand for turning itself around. It is merely business as usual, with fresh infusions to be melted away, because that usual business has proved an abysmal failure.

Because they've been upfront, telling the governments of Ontario and Canada that they "have limited capacity to provide guarantees", the loans should be forthcoming. They're entitled. Why? They've got a negative net-worth, and they're burning through capital like there's no tomorrow.

Let's face it, they're a manufacturing dinosaur. Despite tax concessions and cash supports in the past, they've simply outlived themselves. They produce an inferior product, and were in dire straits even before the current financial collapse and cash crunch. Why pour good money after bad, are we such gluttons for punishment?

Funding given them now has no chance of recovery. And that appears the simple fact. And yet, despite that, we've got blinkers on. And if the auto lobby wasn't so forcefully able to stampede governments at every level into the panic of lost jobs, it's the vision of the unions themselves refusing to face their future that brings us to the conclusion that the auto world has gone completely starkers.

CAW officials are not prepared to blink. Canadian Auto workers' Ken Lewenza has informed the media that he has faith he will be successful in maintaining his members' current wage and benefit packages. And quite the packages they are; hefty salaries beefed up with ten weeks of fully-paid vacation time, and a pension that has other Canadians panting with envy.

The union is confident that because costs are lower to the company in wages and benefits because of Canada's universal hospitalization and unemployment benefits, they're home free. Not only does the ordinary tax-paying citizen of this country help pay for exorbitant pension benefits, vacation time and padded wages in this manner, but people who fear losing their employment in other sectors are being asked to pony up to rescue Big Auto.

We've been scorched too often by governments complicit in handing corporate hand-outs to our industries that do very well for themselves, yet which seem incapable of repaying government loans - aside from those which are deemed to begin with, non-repayable. Those are billions of tax-payer dollars being hoisted and hefted. Sprinkle them where they may do far more good.

Scientific research and development comes to mind. Bringing far greater benefits to the country as a whole, employing far larger numbers of people, benefiting us in innumerable ways through enhanced technologies and scientific findings leading to advances of all kinds.