G.M. Asks for $18 Billion as It Tries to Avoid Collapse

This has been in the news for a bit now, but it looks like it is getting worse:

WASHINGTON — General Motors will drastically cut jobs, factories, brands and executive pay in a desperate attempt to persuade Congress to give it $12 billion in loans to stave off a financial collapse.

In an unabashed plea for an emergency government rescue, G.M. said Tuesday that it needed $4 billion in immediate loans to stay in business after December, and another $8 billion to carry it through the first part of next year.

Without help, the nation’s largest automaker could topple into insolvency within weeks and drag down the other two members of Detroit’s troubled Big Three. The company said it needed $10 billion in federal loans to keep running through March, another $2 billion for the balance of 2009, and a $6 billion line of credit in additional support beyond that.“The first $4 billion is crucial,” G.M.’s president, Frederick Henderson, said. “We wouldn’t have asked for it if we didn’t need it.”

If the economy was in good or even OK shape, I would be happy to let G.M. falter along with the other two members of the Big Three. Their ability to adjust to the times is largely responsible for the financial mess that is the current state.

However, these are not ordinary times. The economy is in shambles. Stock prices have dropped nearly 50%. People are losing jobs. If the Big Three do collapse, that means millions more out of jobs. That means thousands more faltering on mortgages. We must, in my humble opinion, save the Big Three. Not for the executives at the top, but for the everyday workers who are hanging on by a thread.