Why Should we Bail Out the US Auto Makers?

Pressure is mounting on the current and the new US administration to bail out the US automakers to the tune of $25 Billion. This on top of the already $700 Billion of taxpayers money being spent on bailing out US financial institutions.

The US automakers have for years depended on a bad business model and maintaining a status-quo by building factory capacity for gas guzzling SUV's. These SUV's once the cash cow for the big three now have become a liability. And they cannot get rid of this liability fast enough and they do not have enough cash to innovate their way out of the mess that is their own making.

With the US big three burning cash at the rate of millions of dollars a day, the executives are doing the rounds of Capitol Hill asking for this $25 billion in loan guarantees so that they can use this money for innovation and build more fuel efficient cars. Where was the talk of innovation when they were making billions of dollars on the gas guzzling SUV's? Why weren't the profits from the sales of SUV's not reinvested back into R&D to develop better fuel efficient technologies? Who is to blame for all of this? Of course it is the management of these automakers which neither had the vision nor the werewithal to think far ahead into the future. Aren't the executives of these companies paid the top dollar for thinking ahead. Why should this incompetent management be trusted with $25 billion of tax payers money?