[tomder55]

There is something I don't understand about the GM situation. If I was a GM employee, I would be one of the first to say, "Suppose we all take a 20% pay cut? Would that help keep this plant open and lower the price of GM cars so as to increase sales?" I wouldn't like a 20% pay cut, but it would be much better than a 100% pay cut, and yet that never seems to be done. The last I heard, it costs the Big Three about 75 dollars an hour to employ a worker. I don't see how that can be sustainable, but you never seem to see management and the union come together for the benefit of everyone.

It isn't really about the workers salaries . GM and other auto makers have to forecast what the market will be BEFORE they tool up their plants . GM bet on sedans and electric cars (probably because the government owned shares of GM after TARP) The American consumers have chosen SUVs and light trucks as their transportation of choice. So now GM had to make a call ....could they retool the existing plants or make the cars they mostly sell overseas closer to their projected market ? Also ;I can't emphasis enough how much of a disaster the steel and aluminum tariffs are to the auto and soon many other industries . It was a disaster the last time it was tried . But Trump is so committed to this protectionist folly that he will not see how terrible call it was.
http://www.tradepartnership.com/pdf_...02jobstudy.pdf

[jlisenbe]

It isn't really about the workers salaries . GM and other auto makers have to forecast what the market will be BEFORE they tool up their plants . GM bet on sedans and electric cars (probably because the government owned shares of GM after TARP) The American consumers have chosen SUVs and light trucks as their transportation of choice. So now GM had to make a call ....could they retool the existing plants or make the cars they mostly sell overseas closer to their projected market ? Also ;I can't emphasis enough how much of a disaster the steel and aluminum tariffs are to the auto and soon many other industries . It was a disaster the last time it was tried . But Trump is so committed to this protectionist folly that he will not see how terrible call it was.

Interesting comments. I see your point, but if salaries across the board were lower, car prices would lower and that would give GM a competitive edge. I'm not sure about the steel and aluminum tariffs. It will certainly be a boost to the steel and aluminum industries here.

Libs should stop whining about it waiting for the government to fix their problems .

Exactly right. Libs have bought into the false idea that government is here to make our lives happier and easier. No, government should serve four functions: 1. national defense. 2. establish a good system of courts. 3. preserve peace internally. 4. promote the general welfare.

Nowhere in that list do we see any notion of making us happy and giving us easy lives. That's our job, individually.

[talaniman]

Read the Constitution all 4 are in there and more.

[jlisenbe]

Read the Constitution all 4 are in there and more.

I was basically quoting the preamble of the Constitution. There are six basic functions of the federal governemnt listed. I gave you four. The first is very general and refers to the old Articles of Confederation being inadequate. The sixth refers to the future preservation of liberty. Perhaps I should list it as well, but it seems more looking to the future than the present. At any rate, here they are:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence,^{[note 1]} promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

[tomder55]

It will certainly be a boost to the steel and aluminum industries here.

IT did boost the steel industry a little the last time it was tried under GW Bush . But it so negatively impacted the rest of the economy ;especially industries that use steel like auto and construction ,that they were dropped in less than 2 years . 200,000 workers in U.S. manufacturing lost their jobs as a result of the tariffs. For comparison, the entire U.S. steel industry employed 197,000 at the time.

[talaniman]

It really makes sense to let a guy with many bankruptcies, and no credit at the banks in the town he lives in, run fiscal policy for the country! We sure got what we paid for... a lying, cheating dufus who does some really stupid stuff.

[jlisenbe]

Yeah. We could have had that paragon of virtue, Hillary Clinton. Thank goodness she's never done any lying or cheating, not to mention being responsible for the deaths of 4 Americans in Benghazi

[tomder55]

It really makes sense to let a guy with many bankruptcies, and no credit at the banks in the town he lives in, run fiscal policy for the country!

His financial advisors are outstanding especially his Chief of Economic Advisors Larry Kudlow and Steve Moore .

[jlisenbe]

It really makes sense to let a guy with many bankruptcies, and no credit at the banks in the town he lives in, run fiscal policy for the country!

Hard to argue with the results. He's miles ahead of where Mr. Obama had us in his eight years.

[talaniman]

His financial advisors are outstanding especially his Chief of Economic Advisors Larry Kudlow and Steve Moore .

Followed them for MANY years, total supply siders, so no surprise you love them.

Hard to argue with the results. He's miles ahead of where Mr. Obama had us in his eight years.

You must be near sighted.

[tomder55]

Followed them for MANY years, total supply siders, so no surprise you love them.

damn straight . AND they are free traders . Hoping they talk Trump out of his disasterous trade polices towards our allies . China ? They need some areas of their trade abuses smacked down.