BS: Should Feds Bail Out G.M.???

Subject: RE: BS: Should Feds Bail Out G.M.???
From: leftydee
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 09:29 PM

The real problem with the car companies is that they are slaves to their shareholders. There is no investing for the future anymore. Investors are now insistent on short term, overly greedy gains. Company execs must produce quick profits (usually short-sighted)or be replaced. You see it everywhere in corporate America, Execs raping companies as quickly as possible because they are always on the cusp of replacement.

Robomatic: you obviously haven't owned a American car in the last 10 years. My advice is to keep buying foreign goods. There should be some really good Chinese cars coming down the line soon. Take a nice picture of it... it will be a great comfort to your grandchildren as they starve to death.

Subject: RE: BS: Should Feds Bail Out G.M.???
From: robomatic
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 08:46 PM

I was kinda hopin' Toyota would buy GM. At least there'd be a better'n even chance their cars would improve.

Subject: RE: BS: Should Feds Bail Out G.M.???
From: Ebbie
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 07:59 PM

G-New, I thought my German was bad!

Subject: RE: BS: Should Feds Bail Out G.M.???
From: Bobert
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 07:34 PM

Okay, what if it costs G.M. an extra $2000 over Toyota to produce a car because of pension agreements made 30 and 40 years ago... That's a lot of R & D and Design money.... Just throwing some thoughts in here and there...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Should Feds Bail Out G.M.???
From: Rapparee
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 07:17 PM

Nationalize 'em all, I say!! Show 'em what efficient management can do, by God!!

Subject: RE: BS: Should Feds Bail Out G.M.???
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 06:58 PM

The underlying problem is the obsession with 'growth'.

This obsession with a need for continued growth eventually led to P.O., for when everybody has bought one - and they were built 'too good' and are still working - then you must make them throw the old ones away. So 'style' cam in, etc. One must cynically wonder about 'extra safety' too - disk brakes were around in the 1930's, but only put on cars when they could make extra money out of them, cause drums were 'cheaper'.

Some advances such as safety belts, I agree with. Also the 'consumer industry' invented different types of things we all need, such as AM -> FM radio, LPs -> 8 tracks -> cassettes -> CDs, etc may be said to be an 'advance'.

Subject: RE: BS: Should Feds Bail Out G.M.???
From: gnu
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 06:52 PM

You got that right, Fooles.... especially the vehicles they have produced over the past ten years... we had a problem here with insurance companies saying they would not insure a vehicle over ten years old... what does that speak to? UNREAL!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Should Feds Bail Out G.M.???
From: gnu
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 06:45 PM

Like zee Folksvagon? Vere vould zee Yankees ever get such an idea, ja?

Subject: RE: BS: Should Feds Bail Out G.M.???
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 06:39 PM

The main problem US car manufacturers is their clever 'planned obsolence' game they started years ago. If they had made cars cheap to buy, cheap to run and repair, they would have made less profit form fewer cars, but there wouldn't be much need for new, cheaper, more efficient cars to be brought in from overseas anyway.

Much the same could be said for many other products, the P.O. game was led by the USA...

Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind...

Subject: RE: BS: Should Feds Bail Out G.M.???
From: gnu
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 06:36 PM

Well... if the average US citizen could afford to bail out Chrysler so that the Germans could but it cheap, why not GM? Spechen sie Deutch, mine bitter? Ah... please bend over a little more... that angle isn't quite right for what is about to happen. Odd, innit? Ya never know who your friends are until....

Subject: RE: BS: Should Feds Bail Out G.M.???
From: Bobert
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 06:21 PM

I'm not sure that's the only problem that G.M. has, Charley...

B~

Subject: RE: BS: Should Feds Bail Out G.M.???
From: Charley Noble
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 06:09 PM

Well there are a lot of investors whose GM bonds are now designated "Junk Bonds," including my aged mother. She'd be very pleased if the Feds baled out GM.

However, why the Hell doesn't GM have enough vision to realize that they need to make fuel-efficient vehicles rather than the gas-guzzling dinosaurs they continue to churn out?

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Should Feds Bail Out G.M.???
From: Ebbie
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 05:57 PM

It certainly has been done before. Remember Iacocca?

Subject: BS: Should Feds Bail Out G.M.???
From: Bobert
Date: 15 Dec 05 - 05:43 PM

Well, this question isn't exclusively about GM but old U.S. industrial companies in general...

Should the fed's bail 'um, if so, how, why, etc...

Bobert