Carmaker: Salvation

Chrysler is one of the automakers who who sucked some government tait and got themsleves a cool $4 billion in emergency aid and bailout money. Under private ownership, Chrysler has cut 36% of its employees, taking its combined blue-collar and white-collar staffing to the lowest level since 1934. Under the terms of its federal bailout, the automaker must submit a restructuring plan next month and demonstrate it can be made viable by the end of March. It has said it will seek another $3 billion in U.S. government loans.

And they just unveiled plans to help underwrite the fourth installment of the "Terminator" movie series.

"This spring, Terminator 4 (Salvation) comes out and we will be one of the sponsors," Chrysler director of media Susan Thomson said in a presentation at the Automotive News World Congress. "We have a following with the Terminator movies and we are going to continue with that." Great, more public tax dollars being wasted on corporations who lose tons of money, and prove they don't don't derserve it in the first place.

Thomson later added, “From now on, when people think post-apocalyptic wasteland, they’ll think Chrysler.” Indeed.