All Your Cities Lie in Dust

Usually, I don't really spend much time worring about the economy. I mean, yeah, it's in terrible shape, but there's not much that I personally can do about it except to spend responsibility. My stocks are not worth nearly as much as they were this time last year, but I'm not going to panic and cash them in either. I realize it's going to be harder to find an internship, job and to pay for things, but really that's the extent to what I think about. I rarely think about what exactly got us into this mess...besides the usual, "Bush is a dumbass."

Today in Business, we discussed AIG who has lost the $150 BILLION that was given to them to help them out of this slump; they're probably going to lose the next $50 BILLION we give them, too Then we focused on GM. Oh. My. Gosh. What idiots. Seriously. They lost a measly $31 BILLION compared to AIG, but let's put that in perspective. Losing $31 B is the same thing as burning a $1000.00 bill every minute for an entire year. It's ridiculous.

And here is the reasoning behind the downfall is that GM cannot compete with foreign made vehicles. Duh. Before GM even starts building a car, it has already put $25oo.00 into it because of some very faulty programs that they insist on holding onto.

Firstly, they pay almost all of their employees' (including families of the employees and retirees) insurance. The employee does not have to pay any premium. When there are over 130,000 people getting this, it amounts to about $1000.00 from each car.

Secondly, if a plant closes, the employees who worked at that plant continue to receive full pay and benefits as long as they are volunteering or going to school (which GM will pay for). That doesn't provide ANY incentive for the person to go find a job.

Both of these practices are great--in theory. I love that GM has so much respect for their employees and that they are truly concerned with bettering society. However, these actions have caused them to lose so much money that instead of bolstering middle-class America, it's going to bring it toppling down.

It's just so frustrating.

PS. The Dow dropped 300 points today and is below 7000 for the first time in 12 years.