RSSThe GM black hole for money continues
Jun 01
Todays events relating to GM are overall positive, I guess. But wow, going into bankruptcy requires another $30B? It seems we’ve just transferred the losses from the investors to the taxpayers, which is a bit infuriating.
It seemed obvious 8 months ago, when all the bailouts started, that GM would end up in bankruptcy no matter how much money they were given. Their problem wasn’t a shortage of cash, it was a broken business model.
The one bright point is this means the Chevy Volt should definitely see production. I think it’s the most impressive concept in electric vehicles to date. Pure electrics are still plagued by short range (which is great for in-city commuting, but not as a primary vehicle). The Volt is driven entirely by the electric motors, but it also has a small gas-powered engine that can kick in when the batteries are drained to run an alternator for electricity. If it weren’t a GM it would be high on my list, although actually if it gets really great reviews it would still be worth consideration.
Jun 02, 2009 @ 09:08:21
I don’t know if you realize, but GM was once a Canadian company. At the turn of the century, McLaughlin Carriage merged with Buick and other small local firms to form a conglomerate in Oshawa, Ontario. Two years later it was incorporated in Detroit as General Motors.
And for it’s part, the Canadian side of the operation always ran in the black. Why can’t the company afford pensions for all its pensioners? Because the US execs stole billions from the Canadian pension fund and broke the contracts they signed to pay it back. The Oshawa plant once had a huge cash reserve, but it too was borrowed, bilked and frittered away by irresponsible US management. The only part of the company left in the US now is those same execs, who make sweeping decisions to close plants or waste billions on a whim, because they have golden parachutes to protect them from their own mistakes.
That’s the problem with all this anti-GM sentiment. Only the workers will suffer the consequenes. The executives who caused this will retire and write memoirs about how the unions ruined everything for them by not conceding enough.
Jun 02, 2009 @ 10:33:49
I agree the workers are the ones being hurt in all this. I hope there are provisions that any golden parachutes are void when a company goes bankrupt, or if not there should be.
The management of GM should have been changed 10 years ago and maybe this would have all been avoided.
Jun 02, 2009 @ 11:52:12
20 years ago, maybe.
I guess when you make billions a year for running a multinational corporation, you probably feel invincible. Like every idea you have is brilliant and nothing could go wrong. But that only makes you careless and irresponsible.
I think it’s ironic that GM is now begging the US government for billions, while at the same time closing up and moving all it’s plants to Mexico. What exactly is the US getting for it’s money? Exactly who’s job are they saving? Shouldn’t Mexico be chipping in?
Jun 02, 2009 @ 12:25:52
Actually, GM moved all it’s plants to Mexico back in the 80s when they were making record profits.
That was also the era of “planned obsolescence”, a corporate policy of intentionally using low quality parts so cars wouldn’t last longer than 3 years. And they knowingly used parts that failed catastrophically as long as the cost of a few lawsuits was lower than a recall.
Don’t let em fool you with their sob stories. They treated their customers like suckers and their employees like crap, even in the best of times.
The employees were undereducated morons who gleefully bilked their company for as much overtime and union perks as they could get. Society will be better off once all the highschool droppout blue collar jobs are gone.