Gnusman53
All-Star Author
San Diego
Posts:568
Points:163,020
Joined:Feb 2004
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Message Posted: Jul 30, 2010 3:59:42 PM
Gee.... seems that we have some American haters posting here.
Who gets paid more.... a auto worker or a Banker?
Who got more money...both in bailouts and in investment.....The only thing I find "lucrative" is the amount of money the banksters on wall street have ripped off with all their crap........
Gee ....isn't a million-dollar bonus for losing billions more lucrative than an autoworker's salary.....
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Gnusman53
All-Star Author
San Diego
Posts:568
Points:163,020
Joined:Feb 2004
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Message Posted: Jul 30, 2010 3:55:10 PM
Several items....
1) Without the car companies, we would be speaking german right now. They folded themselves into national service for WWII and became the manufacturing engine that powered the US to victory...... it wasn't until after the war they went back into regular industrial mode.
For that reason, I am willing to cut them a certain amount of slack.
2) They did have inept and downright evil management who were in cohosts with GOP pols for many years to but their POS vehicles for government fleets so they could still make a lot of money. They made collective bargaining agreements for health coverage for life for the retirees in return for lower pay levels to pay for it. That saved the car companies up front..... then years later, the used tricks to kill the health car for the auto workers who spent two, three and even four decades working for the company.
3) The GOP provided blocks to keep CAFE standards from being raised. The GOP also gave them tax breaks to send jobs overseas and tax breaks to close factories in Detroit.
4) the new ownership is changing things for the better at GM and Chrysler.... will it be enough to make them successful....
That is the question...
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coughlin
Champion Author
San Jose
Posts:1,147
Points:300,275
Joined:Sep 2009
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Message Posted: Jul 30, 2010 10:33:33 AM
I was extremely skeptical of the Fed putting money into GM but determined that, at the time, with the wheels coming off economy, the it was probably the right thing to do.
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BurntOrange
Champion Author
Austin
Posts:2,561
Points:619,790
Joined:Nov 2007
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Message Posted: Jul 30, 2010 10:21:24 AM
"Obama is using the backdrop of Detroit- area plants owned by GM and Chrysler to promote what he says is an industry revival that has saved more than a million jobs."
Wow, a million job. You are one impressive dude, Mr Obama.
But later the article states:
"Since GM and Chrysler exited bankruptcy a little more than a year ago, the industry -- including Ford Motor Co., which didn’t seek federal aid -- has re-hired 55,000 workers after shedding 334,000 in the year before. "
55,000 strikes me as being quite bit less than a million.
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the1roadhog
Champion Author
Atlanta
Posts:5,142
Points:1,086,605
Joined:Jun 2007
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Message Posted: Jul 30, 2010 6:19:54 AM
Poor management is at the heart of GM and Chrysler's problems.
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zeukeeper
Rookie Author
Michigan
Posts:7
Points:18,660
Joined:Jun 2006
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Message Posted: Jul 30, 2010 5:59:57 AM
This is so true. The best thing for GM and Chrysler would have been bankruptcy. This would have allowed them to be more competitive with the foreign owned automakers setting up shop all over the country.
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WR-INC
Champion Author
Twin Cities
Posts:32,514
Points:2,649,720
Joined:Dec 2002
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Message Posted: Jul 30, 2010 4:21:01 AM
He wasn't bailing out the auto makers, he was bailing out the unions. Their lucrative contracts would have been broken by a bankruptcy.
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