[Choux]

There was an old saying years ago "As goes General Motors, so goes the nation".

Here we are at the unthinkable, General Motors on the brink of bankruptcy General Motors so much the symbol and base of American prosperity... of America. What is it? One in six jobs in America is related to the automotive industry?

Is this where GM ends?

All having to be rescued by the Federal Government. If the Federal Government can help??

Is the heart of American prosperity... banks, money markets, auto manufacturing, financial services etal... going to all be partners with the Federal Government going forward??

No regulation on the money markets produces BOOM AND BUST CAPITALISM.

Will you be fighting a migrant worker for a job in a couple of years? :)

[tickle]

Oshawa Ontario General Motors has already shut down, 2500 workers gone and auction for plant equipment was today.

Another downside snowball effect is a few automotive parts companies have already gone bankrupt.

Volvo pulled out of Ontario and moved to PA

[Fr_Chuck]

They are in the process of closing the Atlanta plant now.

But why not a bail out for them also, the banks are burning though our tax dollars fairly fast, so may as well though some more out there.

[Galveston1]

The problem is world wide. GM will survive, and so will we. We (not me personally) survived the great depression, and WW2 when we started from way behind after the loss of so much of our Navy at Pearl Harbor. We are survivors! We did it all without becoming a socialist nation, and we shouldn't be looking in that direction now.

[tomder55]

Fr Chuck

The Congress awarded $25 billion recently to American auto-industry.

Choux

The problem with GM is union related pension obligations . It has huge liabilities (debt, pension obligations, health care benefits) and is not generating enough cash to meet them.

Why U.S. automakers like GM and Ford are losing money - Jan. 26, 2007

Meanwhile most of their lines of vehicles lines are cr*p.

If the unions would work together with management perhaps disaster can be avoided .
GM could have course declare bankruptcy and immediately void its union contracts. Give the workers a choice: give up their gold plated benefits or face unemployment.

[tickle]

I don't think GM or Ford built 'crap'. They built a lot of good cars for a number of years. The gas crunch did it. Too many monster cars on the road. It got out of hand. I wouldn't want to be filling a Hummer up right about now and paying oveer $l00 bucks cdn.

No, you are right, union problems, GM employees were living high off the hog for a good number of years in Oshawa, good benefits $30. An hour, big house in the north, etc.

It was going to happen, now here in Ontario, GM will be history after next week, and Oshawa, soon to be a ghost town.

It was the birth place of General Motors via the McLaughlins.

I have strong opinions about this. My husband made a lot of money selling parts and ergonomic equipment to GM in Oshawa for years. Thankfully, it isn't our bread and butter for a good number of years.

[tomder55]

They built a lot of good cars for a number of years.

This was true before the
Chevette . What happened is that they have never kept ahead of the curve. Perhaps their overhead has been so high that they could not put sufficient resources into R&D.

Now their passanger cars are supposedly as good and Toyota and Honda but they are forever playing catch up. They did not introduce hybrids until Toyota had established itself as the brand name.
They also put way too much into light truck and SUVs . Now with gas prices dropping again perhaps the public will be stupid enough to buy them again... but I doubt it.

They should beef up their foreign operations ;restructure their contracts with the unions ( fat chance if Obama gets in . He will further strengthen the unions ) . Dump all divisions but Chevrolet and Cadillac... and hope the Volt sells (no sure thing although a great concept).

By the way : I hope I get notice ahead of time if the gvt. Comes to the rescue of GM . They did it before having George Romney use fed money to get American Motors and Lee Iacocca get Chrysler on it's feet .
People who purchased Chrysler at $3 /share then made a fortune. GM at around $5/share now is a bargain . Laying down $1000 buys 200 shares and if it does turn around it will pay for my next vacation.
Edit :actually right now it is up about 2 bucks since it's low last week.

[inthebox]

There was an old saying years ago "As goes General Motors, so goes the nation".

Here we are at the unthinkable, General Motors on the brink of bankruptcy General Motors so much the symbol and base of American prosperity.....of America. What is it? One in six jobs in America is related to the automotive industry?

Is this where GM ends?

All having to be rescued by the Federal Government. If the Federal Government can help???

Is the heart of American prosperity....banks, money markets, auto manufacturing, financial services etal....going to all be partners with the Federal Government going forward???

No regulation on the money markets produces BOOM AND BUST CAPITALISM.

Will you be fighting a migrant worker for a job in a couple of years?? :)

Capitalism only ensures the best survive.

The consumer votes with their wallet.

If a Honda Accord or Toyota Camry are better overall cars than a Ford Taurus or Chevy Malibu that is the way it goes.

It should be noted that the Accord and Camry are built in the US as are BMWs, Nissan, Mercedes Benz.

It should be noted that Honda and Toyota do not have to deal with the UAW and benefits promised a generation ago.





BTW Choux - what do you drive ? Some socialist or communist product like a Yugo or Skoda :D

[CreditTard]

I'm hoping that my GM credit card rewards all of sudden become worthless, I've been saving them up for over a year.

[George_1950]

Here we are at the unthinkable, General Motors on the brink of bankruptcy General Motors so much the symbol and base of American prosperity.....of America. What is it? One in six jobs in America is related to the automotive industry?

GM and the 'Big Three' no longer represent the prosperity of the U.S. or the prospects of our future. Check this: "Although GM has only 300,000 employees, it pays health care for 1.1 million workers, dependents and retirees. Unionized employees pay only 7 percent of their health care costs but non-union workers (white collar) pay 27 percent, the company said. The company did not release data showing relative wage rates for the two categories of employees." This was written June 8, 2005, in As Goes GM ....

It appears that management at GM is married to survival of the United Auto Workers, rather than the best interests of its shareholders. Unionization has killed the 'Big Three', and it could not have done so without the aid and assistance of the U.S. government, unfortunately. President Bush is such an idiot; he remarked that the 'Big Three' could not go through the disorderly bankruptcy process. As I recall, Bush signed the last reform to the current bankruptcy law. In fact, the 'Big Three' could easily enter Chapter 11 and compete on a global basis going forward, which they are unable to do now.

[tomder55]

Yes GM and the "big 3 could and should be restructured . However the bridge loan they received is small potatoes compared to the blanket TARP . Unlike the banks ,the Big 3 came grovelling (after their initial SNAFU with the private planes). They got the loan with strings attached ;unlike the banks apparently .

I don't think Chrysler will survive this but perhaps there is no more justification in the market for 3 big automakers .

A bigger concern for their future is switch at the House Energy and Commerce Committee( arguably with the Way's and Means Committtee ,the most powerful committee in Congress) from Dingell to Waxman .

Waxman is an enviro-nutjob's wet dream. Dingell had an constituency base in Michigan and is an American auto advocate. Look for the interests of the UAW to be thrown under the bus in the effort to make a green car .

[twinkiedooter]

A picture is worth a thousand words...

[George_1950]

That's cute, thanks.

[twinkiedooter]

I had this up in the attic of my computer just itching for a chance to trot it out. They are really getting the ultimate revenge if you ask me.