Goodbye to Hollywood , Goodbye to G.M. Our president has ordered G.M. into bankruptcy court and we are promised a whole new G.M. when they are done. I may be cynical, but it looks to me like G.M. has just met two of its dearest goals. Bust the union and shift the cost of the retirees on to the taxpayers. In the business world this is called " externalizing costs" in the real world it means sticking someone else with the bill. That someone is us.
It looks like the people who are not going to be saved in this court ordered transfiguration is the auto workers. Who in part were the author of their own misfortunes, but the UAW did not make the stupid decisions that ruined the biggest car company in the world. That prize goes to the Executive Timber who only knew one rule profit at any cost.
One has to wonder if G.M is closing 14 more auto plants how many can be left? If the are going to lay off 21,000 employees who is going to make all the sporty fuel efficient and reliable cars? Who is going to buy them, the people with no jobs? It will be interesting to see how in the world they are now going to make a world class now when they could not for the past 40 years.
Some of the answers are interesting. The cars are going to be made in Mexico by our Mexican Friends, [So this is what NAFTA was all about.] and shipped back to the good old USA, so if you like the idea of buying an American car you should start thinking Honda and Toyota especially if you like sporty, fuel efficient and reliable cars. Oh sorry that was G.M.s slogan. Do not forget all those auto workers and their friends and families they would walk the streets of hell barefoot before they would buy a Chevy.
Which begs another question. Between running Dietech mortgage company and GMAC financing maybe G.M. wants to be in the money business with cars as a sideline. After decades of perfecting the art of explaining failure and blame gaming it looks like the Suits [meaning faceless executives who get paid a fortune to talk and say nothing] have milked the last nickle out of Good old G.M and are tossing to the husk to President Obama. Who in 6 months is going to wish he had stayed out of the auto business and let G.M. fail. Personally I think it is G.M.s milatary production that saved it.
It would not take much for Toyota to take over the military vehicle production they certainly have the engineering and facilities. Just think our next war could be fought with Toyota Sequoias and Tundra trucks. It is getting harder to remember the Japanese lost the war. Or did they?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment