{"id":1328,"date":"2012-09-11T07:36:11","date_gmt":"2012-09-11T11:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/auchtoon.2gtech.com\/?p=1328"},"modified":"2012-09-11T07:36:19","modified_gmt":"2012-09-11T11:36:19","slug":"credit-for-saving-general-motors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/?p=1328","title":{"rendered":"Credit for Saving General Motors&#8230;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/auchtoon.2gtech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/MLMG032.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-1329\" title=\"Credit for Saving General Motors\" src=\"http:\/\/auchtoon.2gtech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/MLMG032.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"394\" srcset=\"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/MLMG032.jpg 560w, http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/09\/MLMG032-300x211.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/auchtoon.2gdata.com\/?art=\/2012\/09\/MLMG032.jpg&amp;name=Credit for Saving General Motors...\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/auchtoon.2gtech.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/buy.png\" alt=\"\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">Originally published in the <em>Ann Arbor News, Bay City Times, Flint Journal, Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette, Muskegon Chronicle, Saginaw News<br \/>\n<\/em>September 9, 2012<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">There are few emotions that rival the intensity of the hatred car owners can carry for manufacturers who sold them a lemon. And let\u2019s face it, automobile manufacturers built a lot of lemons over the years. So I can understand lingering animosity toward General Motors and the 2008\/9 bailout. They screwed up. They built some lousy cars. They made a lot of people angry. (At one point, General Motors controlled 50% of the American market, so there is a pretty good chance you are one of those people.) But I do think the bailout was the right thing to save our whole manufacturing sector from sucking down a sinkhole, and it has on the whole helped revitalize the auto industry here in the US. (It does, however, make me wince when the Democrats trumpet the success. Don\u2019t they realize how volatile the automobile market is? Don\u2019t they realize how quickly fortunes change? Toyota anyone? They are just asking for a karma smackdown, and we don\u2019t need that in Michigan.)<\/p>\n<p>Speaking of karma, I really shouldn\u2019t disparage the mighty Vega without this full disclosure: on Spring Break of my senior year of high school, my friend Dominic\u2019s Vega took me, him, and friends Lewis and Joe from Michigan to Pennsylvania to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and back home without any problems. I remember it not being too happy climbing mountains and my head still has dents from hitting the stylish hatchback roofline on every bump, but credit where credit is due. It may have turned into a pile of dust once it reached Dominic\u2019s driveway, but it got the job done.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Originally published in the Ann Arbor News, Bay City Times, Flint Journal, Grand Rapids Press, Jackson Citizen Patriot, Kalamazoo Gazette, Muskegon Chronicle, Saginaw News September 9, 2012 There are few emotions that rival the intensity of the hatred car owners can carry for manufacturers who sold them a lemon. And let\u2019s face it, automobile manufacturers [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlive-media-group"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1328"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1328\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1331,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1328\/revisions\/1331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/auchtoon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}