The Chevy Volt - A Bust
A Big Whoops
What Can I Say...
I picked up on the video shown here a while back and thought I'd save it in my archive files for further use because I knew that it would be used further in light of all of our tax dollars Obama has pumped into Government Motors, formerly called General Motors. I was right as usual about the usefulness of things coming back around to bite the buttocks of "The One." Next thing I knew here comes the Prez telling the nation that when he leaves office he is going to buy himself one of those duds called a Volt. I can only hope that we show him to the nearest showroom in January of 2013.
Since Obama is pounding his chicken chest over the Volt, may I suggest that he trade little Joey Biden in on his newest failure and have a Volt as his vice presidential running mate for the coming election. Just think how many votes he could buy with that move, or was the word I was looking for "garner?" So take a look at the commerical that should air coast-to-coast quite often as we approach November of 2012.
Fascinating Commercial For A Fiasco
I'm sure most of us remember the auto industry bailout that was one of Obama's "greatest accomplishments," according to him and the United Auto Workers (UAW) anyway. We were told what a great deal we were getting, but as usual, the dealer was a bit crooked. Then Obama started hanging his star on the now infamous Volt as being the answer to our alternative energy vehicle prayers. So what has it cost us, the American taxpayer, for each one of these 1%er vehicles that have rolled off the line?
But before I go there lets discuss some breaking news. Government Motors (GM) has announced that it will suspend the production of this rolling coffin for at least five weeks. They will be laying off about 1,300 workers during this hiatus. The reason is slow sales. Obama might be one of the few people who will fork over the kind of dough they're asking for this plug in toy car. But then again, he also just recently announced that he will extend a 10K tax incentive to buyers who are sucker enough to go into the show room and drive off with one.
Lets Do Some Fuzzy Math
Did you know that the US Treasury (UST) still owns 500 million shares of Government Motors common stock? Maybe that's why we refer to it by that name. So what is the "break even" point that the UST would need to sell "our" shares of the stock? That would be $53.00 USD. It closed the week at $26.49. Another very wise, astute investment by this administration as anyone can plainly see. Of course it wasn't Obama's money he was investing as usual. It belongs to the US tax payer, one of which I am.
Below is a good link to use if you care to track just how good your investment is doing in Government Motors which has invested heavily in the Chevy Volt. The reason for the layoff that will occur is that sales haven't reached expectations and GM now has a heavy surplus of inventory. I wonder how much that is costing us at this point since inventory is just that - inventory.
They Keep This Link Updated
- http://www.bailoutcost.com/
American Taxpayer's Loss on GM Stock Investment
If you looked at the link you would see that we are on the losing end of this whole proposition once again. Last time I looked we are out $13,276,732,493 and some loose change. Notice also that Government Motors is sitting on $34 billion in cash. If the company has that much cash on hand, why hasn't the American tax payer been paid back in full for bailing out a union busted company? Then another question comes to mind. At bailout time the company was basically handed over to the UAW and investors took it in the shorts. Why haven't those people been compensated for their losses?
So back to the Volt. Lets do some math. At the time of the bailout Obama touted the Volt as the salvation of Government Motors. After all it only was $53 billion of other people's money on this crap shoot. The Energy Department threw out the figure that 120,000 Volts a year would be sold from 2012 to evermore. Has any of that happened? It appears that the only people willing to pay $15K more than a toy is worth are the intellectually elite of the nation who want to show us how much more superior and enlightened they are than the rest of us with common sense.
So here's the way the math works. Each Chevy Volt sold to these snobs in our society amount to a cost of around $250,000 per plug-in toy. A vibrator would probably be more economical and provide a greater thrill to the driver. You see after all the government grants, subsidies, tax credits are added in the math just doesn't work out. Compound the problem by Obama's having conveniently tucked another $2.4 billion in "grants" to electric vehicle manufacturers and battery makers in his stimulus bill that he calls so successful. Keep in mind that grants don't have to be repaid. Then add in the additional $2.4 billion that the Department of Energy (DOE) has doled out to help build the plants for the manufacture of EVs and you should at least see some of the light.
Hmmm... I think I've written a few things lately about the belly ups that were involved here and how it happened and why if you want to take a look.
Obama Success Stories?
Let me close with the fact that Government Motors also just recently announced that it was going to pay all its workers a $7K bonus for there great work. Really? How can that be justified when the company still owes the tax payers all that money mentioned above and is sitting on $34 billion cash money? Is something wrong with this picture? Not a peep from Obama about any of those FACTS. All he wants to say is when he isn't in the People's House anymore he will pony up with the rest of the superior, snobbish elitist and buy one so he can show us just how superior he is. Have at it pal! Lets show him where the show rooms are located in November.
As Always,
The Frog Prince
FOOTNOTE: Since publishing this Hub a new story is coming over the wire about Obama now giving "grants" to 4 wind energy companies in the amount of $2.6 billion. Aren't we broke? Guess where the money came from besides our pockets? The now known failure called the Stimupork bill. About a billion and half went to two foreign companies, one in Spain and one in Germany. Who is that stimulating? A third got a little over half a million out in California for a wind farm. 50 permanent jobs will be created. Doing the math that works out to about $9 million per job created. Now you tell me what the hell is going on here.