Letter to the editor:

Put conditions on loans to automakers

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Jerry Bitts, Las Vegas

Friday, Nov. 21, 2008 | 2:06 a.m.

Dan K. Thomasson’s Monday column in the Las Vegas Sun pushes for a bailout of our auto companies. Among other things, Thomasson argues that our national pride is involved.

“Even as kids of the Depression and World War II we argued ... about the merits of each new model,” Thomasson says. I can agree with many of the points made in the column, such as the need for our tax money to be used as a loan to save the auto industry and its jobs, but nostalgia is not a strong argument.

Actually, there were no new civilian cars made during World War II. Only military vehicles were produced because of our war needs. Thomasson’s Lee Iacocca and Chrysler loan model is valid, but some creative thinking might be useful also.

Could the auto industry make light rail trains? Might there be government support for electric cars? In any case, losing our manufacturing base for the sake of a free market ideology does not seem a good option.

Considering the apparent failure of the giveaway to the banks, government controls on loans to our auto companies would be a more productive idea than giving money to the banks with the hope they will lend it. The American taxpayer cannot bundle bad loans and sell them to someone else.