Andrew WhiteWhat a fiasco. They (GM) where never allowed to die properly. Creative destruction should have been allowed to consume the assets and resources in order to grow again. What we have now is a poor-mans’ orchestrated messed up cremation. As parts of the beast collapse, the fire is extinguished, only to flare up somewhere else.
I heard yesterday that GM sent letters out to the “worst performing” dealers saying that their franchises would not be renewed – next October. What? NEXT October? Why were these dealers even employed now? Why were they not shut down last year, or the year before that? How can you go to work every day and be told, “well, that’s another billion dollars lost”? Surely you sit down and you shut factories! Why do we kid ourselves this is helping our economy. The patient is dead – they died a long time ago – some cannot bring themselves to accept it and instead mortgage our future living standards in a vain attempt to hold off the obvious, and necessary. We, the taxpayer, will see no return on this fiasco. Why kid ourselves about that?
Then today: How can it be that Ron Gettlefinger, UAW President, said “that we are as competitive as any transplant competitor” and got away with it? Asked, during the live press conference at General Motors today, by a member of the audience, [I paraphrase]“when will UAW accept and agree equal rates to competitor firms operating in the US”, Gettelfinger said this was “off the table now” and that “every one has enjoyed attacking us”. Excuse me – who is it that has just gone broke? Who ran their business into the ground over many, many years?
Seems to me the forces of competition have worked their wonders only to be thwarted by our meddling government, and we are collectively saving their rotten bacon and giving up our living standards all too easily. GM is finished, due to lack of competitive capability that has many sources; one has to be the costs incurred to make cars.
The UK went through such wrenching pain many years ago when its core automobile industry was a) bailed out by the government, then b) sold off at a discount to foreigners – some America. Well, they (in the UK) still make cars, though much of the profits are shipped overseas. You can’t fight these forces. We are just kidding ourselves and laying the seeds that will lead to lower standards of living for all of us – sooner than we think.
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