What was lost in the auto bailouts?

[CHIMO]

In the process of “rescuing” the North American-owned auto industry, the government architects of the bailout, in the U.S. and Canada, imposed “shock therapy” on an industry whose employees have suffered one of history’s massive declines in standard of living. And it’s this we’re asked to celebrate in a week when Chrysler LLC, one of the bailout recipients, paid of its Canadian and U.S. bailout loans more than six years ahead of schedule.

Chrysler and General Motors Co. were given loans and relieved of much of their crippling debt in government-arranged bankruptcies. While not requiring a bailout, Ford Motor Co. was effectively rescued as well, since all three companies rely on suppliers that would have perished along with Chrysler and GM.

In return, the bailout recipients – not unlike a troubled developing-world country subjected to the tender mercies of the International Monetary Fund - were required to inflict on themselves, and their workforces, a “shock therapy” that wouldn’t have been necessary had they not been mismanaged for decades in one of capitalism’s biggest failures.

GM alone is closing about one-third of its factories and half of its dealerships in towns where those facilities often are the largest or sole significant employer. For all its talk lately of adding a few hundred jobs here and 2,000 jobs there in years to come, GM came out of bankruptcy in 2009 having agreed to kill 27,000 jobs.

http://www.thestar.com/business/auto/article/1002289--what-was-lost-in-the-auto-bailouts

http://www.cbc.ca/video/#/News/Politics/1244504890/ID=1967518900
Listen to the part at 4:00 of 7:42 after the advertisement.
The only thing free trade is good for is canadian oil at $10 less than the Brent price!
If Rae, or any other Liberal, has to figure out what Canadian policy should be they now have to crawl into a big hole in the ground.
Quebec has thrown them away and wants the NAFTA agreement. Harper wants NAFTA. The NDP want NAFTA. Everyone wants NAFTA. No one is there for Canada.