Posted on 05/20/2009 6:46:46 AM PDT by yankeedame
By Neal Boortz @ May 20, 2009 8:24 AM Permalink |
A listener pointed me to this letter from a Dodge dealer down in Florida. Thought you may enjoy ....
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My name is George C. Joseph. I am the sole owner of Sunshine Dodge-Isuzu, a family owned and operated business in Melbourne, Florida. My family bought and paid for this automobile franchise 35 years ago in 1974. I am the second generation to manage this business.
We currently employ 50+ people and before the economic slowdown we employed over 70 local people. We are active in the community and the local chamber of commerce. We deal with several dozen local vendors on a day to day basis and many more during a month. All depend on our business for part of their livelihood. We are financially strong with great respect in the market place and community. We have strong local presence and stability.
I work every day the store is open, nine to ten hours a day. I know most of our customers and all our employees. Sunshine Dodge is my life.
On Thursday, May 14, 2009 I was notified that my Dodge franchise, that we purchased, will be taken away from my family on June 9, 2009 without compensation and given to another dealer at no cost to them. My new vehicle inventory consists of 125 vehicles with a financed balance of 3 million dollars. This inventory becomes impossible to sell with no factory incentives beyond June 9, 2009. Without the Dodge franchise we can no longer sell a new Dodge as "new," nor will we be able to do any warranty service work. Additionally, my Dodge parts inventory, (approximately $300,000.) is virtually worthless without the ability to perform warranty service. There is no offer from Chrysler to buy back the vehicles or parts inventory.
Our facility was recently totally renovated at Chrysler's insistence, incurring a multi-million dollar debt in the form of a mortgage at Sun Trust Bank.
HOW IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CAN THIS HAPPEN?
THIS IS A PRIVATE BUSINESS NOT A GOVERNMENT ENTITY
This is beyond imagination! My business is being stolen from me through NO FAULT OF OUR OWN. We did NOTHING wrong.
This atrocity will most likely force my family into bankruptcy. This will also cause our 50+ employees to be unemployed. How will they provide for their families? This is a total economic disaster.
HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN IN A FREE MARKET ECONOMY IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?
I beseech your help, and look forward to your reply. Thank you.
Sincerely,
George C. Joseph President & Owner Sunshine Dodge-Isuzu
No, it stopped being a private business once the Democrats decided on their auto bailout plan.
Mr. Joseph, Are you a member of the Republican Party? If you are, then that answers your question. I pray for your family, and for the rest of America.
This issue really, really pains me. It must be because there is a real face to these people. And then they came for the car dealerships... AND I DID NOTHING.
Dear Mr. Joseph,
Do you have any cliffs nearby?
I can think of some excellent You-tube footage I would like to see.
This letter was posted in a different thread yesterday, and I’ll post my same reply . . . Something about this letter makes me wonder if all the facts are laid out clearly here. Who owns (or owned) the dealership business? Who owns (or owned) the property where it was located?
HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN IN A FREE MARKET ECONOMY IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?
“How can this happen?”, he asks. He needs to ask Chris Matthews, CEO of the Tingly Media Corporation.
Obama is what happened.
George,
I know it doesn’t help now but you are getting off easy.
Those dealers that are left will go further into debt
and will not be able to compete with the 125 ‘new’ cars
that will be dumped on the market at liquidation prices.
My advise would be to start a car club. Sign up members that
pay a fixed monthly fee for the use of a car that includes
all insurance, maintenance and repairs.
...
And then they came for the car dealerships... AND I DID NOTHING.
IMO there are millions who feel just the way you describe.
Roll over & die while "the American workers" are simply given controlling interest.
When are people like Soros going to be held accountable? That goes for Oprah and the rest who hate America.
Our country has traded freedom for the gimme quick fix. The constitution is the biggest casualty.
The nation won't truly wake until another 20 years or so (when the goodies run out, or more have been denied their freedoms), but by then, it will be too late.
George, George, George, don’t you realize that this is stimulas? Don’t you realize we all have to make some small sacrifices like this for the better good of all? Why would you want to be strapped with the responsibility of managing a car business when we all know the gubment will run it better and more effeciently? Hell they’ll have the highly efficient and productive U.A.W. to help them out. You too can now become a roof-sitter and ward of the state. Quit your complaining, you, you...capitalist. Now shut up and eat your soylent green wafer.
This is just stunning. Don’t they have any legal recourse? This is criminal - stealing private property from citizens.
Hell yeah, he does have legal recourse. Get into federal court quickly. Don’t just whine.
Wyatt’s Torch comes to mind. Ayn Rand was a prophet. This man is a modern day Ellis Wyatt. He should torch the dealership just like Wyatt did to his oil wells and then disappear. “Here, you can have it all now, just like I found it - a parking lot full of nothing.”
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