Now that General Motors is taxpayer-owned, does it really make sense for it to be giving away Chevrolet Corvettes to rich and happy, albeit disappointed, professional baseball players?
It's an interesting question that was raised by Nick Bunkley, writing in the New York Times.
As Drive On reported Thursday, the Detroit Tigers gave a Corvette -- base price $75,505 for the Z06 version -- to pitcher Armado Galarraga after an umpire's bad call cost him a perfect game. Millions of Americans have lost of their jobs in the past couple of years, faced illnesses without health insurance, had their homes foreclosed, and no one gave them a free sports car.
Before 2009, no one would have batted an eye at GM giving a free car to a ballplayer. But the automaker's bankruptcy last year left it about 60% owned by the federal government -- you and me.
"A free sports car for a Detroit Tigers baseball player was not among the reasons the government saved General Motors from financial collapse," Bunkley writes. The view is shared:
He found a congressman who shares the view in Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who, through a spokesman, says GM shouldn't be handing out too many gifts until the federal government is no longer an investor.
But a GM spokesman said that the price of the car was a pittance compared to the windfall of publicity that Chevy received out of its generosity.
No matter what the outcome, the incident points out the microscope under which the new General Motors finds itself.