Merkinball
Deity
It's hard to respond to market pressures when your cars cost $3000 more simply because you have to cower before a union.
With No Jobs, Plenty of Time for Tea Party
- Thread starter FriendlyFire
- Start date
It's hard to respond to market pressures when your cars cost $3000 more simply because you have to cower before a union.
The cowering was GM's own doing. If you can effectively deal with your labor situation, then you will eventually get crushed in the free market, especially when your competitors are dealing with it. GM had collective capital behind it, so dealing with collective labor should have been manageable.
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
That's the free market, mate. Can't compete in the state you find yourself, you don't make it. Don't start winging because your much-vaunted economic Darwinism has begun to turn out differently than you expected. It's something that the vast majority of the human population has to deal with, so why should we get teary-eyed when a few rich white guys find themselves in the same situation?
Merkinball
Deity
A.) I'm talking about history.
B.) 2008 and 2009 aren't really the best years to compare in the auto world are they?
Also, why are you touting a study done in the UK?
There's nothing manageable about the UAW-GM. Especially if you ask them to cut their pay in half so you can compete equitably in the marketplace.
Japanese automakers seem to be efficiently operating plants in the United States. Perhaps GM should have been stealing some of their ideas.
Come on Cutlass, that invisible hand was not meant to slap collective pooling of capital when there is collective pooling of labor available for the hit.
Oh that's right. The invisble one is on a happy ending mission when labor gets slapped around.
Quackers
The Frog
Whats wrong with being white?
Doing a comparison of the German car firms with GM would be interesting, the Germans have people from the union on their boards.
With the money paid to the top management in GM were the shareholders wrong in expecting that they would sort out GMs problems ?
Blaming the unions is a stretch, they did not design poor cars that were not wanted.
With the money paid to the top management in GM were the shareholders wrong in expecting that they would sort out GMs problems ?
Blaming the unions is a stretch, they did not design poor cars that were not wanted.
Merkinball
Deity
They tried to steal their ideas. The UAW wouldn't have any of it.
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
Nothing, of course. Just an idle observation that the villain with which Merkinball has presented us is owned largely by people who aren't.
Not that such implicit accusations have any place here, of course, so consider them entirely withdrawn. Perhaps "rich Americans" may have been a more appropriate way of putting it, or even simply bypassing the point altogether with "rich guys".
Quackers
The Frog
Aegis
Deity
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2005
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It was Toyota who first rolled out hybrid vehicles, seven years before the US car makers. I think you're wrongly stereotyping the Japanese automakers. They're not just copying US designs & cranking them out more efficiently. They’re doing their own research and designing, as well.
Traitorfish
The Tighnahulish Kid
Well, it was an off-hand remark that I never gave much thought to, and, in retrospect, was best left unvoiced. As I said, such accusations have little place here.So why say it anyway?
I would expect that cliche from a ******* but from TF
I mean, we all screw up sometimes, eh?
Quackers
The Frog
Well, it was an off-hand remark that I never gave much thought to, and, in retrospect, was best left unvoiced. As I said, such accusations have little place here.
I mean, we all screw up sometimes, eh?
Aye we do. Fair enuff m8.
*breaths in at the peak of moral high ground*
Cheezy the Wiz
Socialist In A Hurry
Yeah I can't imagine why they would never want to do that.
Or maybe GM management should share a little more?
If you want American companies to compete better then maybe we should close foreign companies out of the market? After all, if you were a true proponent of the free market then you would support the triumph of the most efficient companies, even if they are not American.
Merkinball
Deity
False. Hybrids were invented in about 1900 by Porche. GM was the first to commercialize hybrid vehicles in the 1900's and 1920's. This was primarily due to the low quality of fuels. Once fuels were improved hybrids went away. Also, why tout Toyota's hybrid when General Motors had an all electric car in 1990?
They do very little in the way of research of designing. They didn't develop hardly anything. They tweak and re-engineer. Not much more. And again, we're comparing them to the history of General Motors.
