GM Declares Itself Essential to World As We Know It
By Scott Reeves Nov 17, 2008 2:40 pm
New ad campaign threatens US collapse would follow GM collapse.
GM’s message is simple: A $25 billion loan now will save a $398 billion hit to the US economy over 3 years.
Maybe, but the 3-minute and 57-second video, featuring stark images and starker captions, certainly makes you question GM’s assumptions. The video includes what’s no doubt intended to be a haunting musical soundtrack and -- this is the real grabber -- no spoken words.
Mr. Goodwrench, where are you?
But the message is clear: Without the bailout, kittens and children won’t live up to their potential, retirees will continue to go bald (and maybe will starve) - the result will be nothing short of apocalyptic for the land of baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet.
“Think a collapse of the US auto industry will just affect Detroit and the Midwest? Think again,” a panel reads.
A mere 0.3% decline in GDP has gotten us into the current economic mess; the video invites viewers to contemplate the desolation let loose by a 4% decline in GDP caused by losing the domestic auto industry.
But that assumes that GM can’t reorganize in bankruptcy; instead, it’ll just turn off the lights and sells everything at pennies on the dollar.
That’s a fate more frightening than Japanese quality control, and would pose a major threat to national security: There’s even a video sequence showing production line churning out tank turrets, just the thing for taking on terrorists in Lower Manhattan.
A following panel warns, “Collapse is imminent if we do nothing.” The video ends by urging viewers “to call or write your member of Congress now.”
No positions in stocks mentioned.
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2008-11-17 14:53:57
Kinder Friendlier Auto Industry
Call me hard-hearted, but Detroit has a track record of being abusive to the American populace:
* Refusing to admit defects in products until the quota of dead Americans is met.
* Can't you feel the love when you go to get that car serviced
* Turning a blind eye (and even encouraging) to the abusive practices at dealerships
So now they stand, hat in hand, wanting Mommy to band-aid their booboo. Yet, looking forward, should the Big 3 manage to turn things around after the buyout, you can be sure that they will not reciprocate to the American public.. They will..
* Still construct cars deliberately designed to force you into the garage for service - hiding information from consumers, engineering vehicles so you have to pull the engine to change the alternator, etc. All of which are designed to force you to spend $100/hr in labor.
* Still encourage dealers to use whatever extortion tactics necessary to "make the deal" and ignoring consumer complaints.
* Still charge more for vehicles than they're worth
* Continue to hide defects until forced to disclose them and recall by the Govt.
So.. The Big 3 want to talk about "We" but its really all about the "Me", they just got the letter upside down.
Who's to say that they won't still lay off all those workers that the bailout is supposed to protect? How is bailing out the Big 3 going to do a thing to protect dealerships who can't sell the inventory they have?
Hey, I've got an idea.. use the bailout money to encourage business BACK to the USA into the communities across the country that have been devastated by offshoring!
* Refusing to admit defects in products until the quota of dead Americans is met.
* Can't you feel the love when you go to get that car serviced
* Turning a blind eye (and even encouraging) to the abusive practices at dealerships
So now they stand, hat in hand, wanting Mommy to band-aid their booboo. Yet, looking forward, should the Big 3 manage to turn things around after the buyout, you can be sure that they will not reciprocate to the American public.. They will..
* Still construct cars deliberately designed to force you into the garage for service - hiding information from consumers, engineering vehicles so you have to pull the engine to change the alternator, etc. All of which are designed to force you to spend $100/hr in labor.
* Still encourage dealers to use whatever extortion tactics necessary to "make the deal" and ignoring consumer complaints.
* Still charge more for vehicles than they're worth
* Continue to hide defects until forced to disclose them and recall by the Govt.
So.. The Big 3 want to talk about "We" but its really all about the "Me", they just got the letter upside down.
Who's to say that they won't still lay off all those workers that the bailout is supposed to protect? How is bailing out the Big 3 going to do a thing to protect dealerships who can't sell the inventory they have?
Hey, I've got an idea.. use the bailout money to encourage business BACK to the USA into the communities across the country that have been devastated by offshoring!
2008-11-17 14:58:00
Only 20% of Americans Support GM Bailout
The latest Gallup Poll shows only 20% support bailing GM out.
How much you want to bet Congress does it anyway?
After all, how can we all sleep at night, if UAW auto workers aren't drawing 95% of their pay when they are laid off watching TV.
How much you want to bet Congress does it anyway?
After all, how can we all sleep at night, if UAW auto workers aren't drawing 95% of their pay when they are laid off watching TV.
2008-11-17 15:08:32
Not Black and White...
I'll agree with the comments on Chapter 11. People and articles seem to insist that GM will either have a fantastic recovery or cataclysmically disappear into nothingness, depending on this bailout. Yet, even if the worst happens and they file Chapter 7 instead, this "worst case nuclear blast wave" I find to be extremely unlikely. SOMEONE is going to come along and buy the factories, designs, intellectual property, etc., and probably save a good chunk of the jobs in doing so.
Of course it will be painful -- but will it be death on a stick? I think the chances are slim.
Oh, yes... do they really think that nobody else in the country can produce war arms, if it comes down to that? We have a lot of combine and tractor factories that could easily be converted to handle such a burden, folks. I'd encourage GM not to slap itself on the back too hard for past services.
... and to Russel, above: "The Big 3 want to talk about 'We' but its really all about the 'Me', they just got the letter upside down." -- love it. :)
Of course it will be painful -- but will it be death on a stick? I think the chances are slim.
Oh, yes... do they really think that nobody else in the country can produce war arms, if it comes down to that? We have a lot of combine and tractor factories that could easily be converted to handle such a burden, folks. I'd encourage GM not to slap itself on the back too hard for past services.
... and to Russel, above: "The Big 3 want to talk about 'We' but its really all about the 'Me', they just got the letter upside down." -- love it. :)
2008-11-17 16:04:35
Heavy handed propaganda
Propaganda of the most obvious sort, with a never ending drum beat repetition of ideas reduced to slogans, making a direct manipulation of the crowd instinct, intended, successfully, to appeal to the herd animal within all of us has just successfully elected a vastly unwisely chosen President.
The Propaganda Industry is very much on a roll, feeling invincible, the New Masters of the Universe. They will succeed in keeping Detroit and the UAW alive and unchanged. Just you watch.
(Forever? Nothing is forever.)
The Propaganda Industry is very much on a roll, feeling invincible, the New Masters of the Universe. They will succeed in keeping Detroit and the UAW alive and unchanged. Just you watch.
(Forever? Nothing is forever.)
2008-11-17 17:59:14
GM Strategies
Please keep this in mind as you form your decision. It's "in character" for GM to spend large amounts of money on propaganda when they should have been reducing their overhead.
Each automobile manufacturing company has different character. GM has been the company where decisions are made by committees of bureaucrats . They are focused on infighting rather than product quality, or market acceptance. Now they have a big new worry: their bonuses. This propaganda is to support those bonuses, not the American economy.
Each automobile manufacturing company has different character. GM has been the company where decisions are made by committees of bureaucrats . They are focused on infighting rather than product quality, or market acceptance. Now they have a big new worry: their bonuses. This propaganda is to support those bonuses, not the American economy.
2008-11-17 20:01:13
Let me see....
There were the same companies that fought safety and efficiency standards tooth and nail, and bought their way out of both through Congress. The same makers of the Pinto, the Fiera, The unmodernised Taurus, the Sebring, The Hummer....too many SUV's, and not enough efficient cars. Who advertised the Cadillac the top of oil prices with commercials extolling waste and consumption.
Oh, and the unions that pay 72/hr to high school grads with no formal skills.
Those days are gone, and no bailout can ever bring them back. Allowing them to go bankrupt would be painful, but the best allocations of capital. Feds...stay out. Let them fail, and new companies will take their place.
There were the same companies that fought safety and efficiency standards tooth and nail, and bought their way out of both through Congress. The same makers of the Pinto, the Fiera, The unmodernised Taurus, the Sebring, The Hummer....too many SUV's, and not enough efficient cars. Who advertised the Cadillac the top of oil prices with commercials extolling waste and consumption.
Oh, and the unions that pay 72/hr to high school grads with no formal skills.
Those days are gone, and no bailout can ever bring them back. Allowing them to go bankrupt would be painful, but the best allocations of capital. Feds...stay out. Let them fail, and new companies will take their place.
2008-11-17 20:57:16
Lost focus
If these incompetent fools put as much time into designing and building cars as they do into creating a propaganda video to beg taxpayers for money, then they would not be in this mess in the first place. How much per car sold will this video cost?
2008-11-17 21:05:12
Irony of Ironies
Spending money they don't have on propaganda to convince the public to support products they don't want.
Wow.
Only in America.
The big three have produced inferior products since 1969. Who can think of a car made by any of them since then that is a collectible or worth remebering? The Monza? The Farrah Fawcett Mustang? It was pretty much all over after 1969.
There have been glimmers of their once good products...probably the old guard with a work ethic and ingenuity that have retired off to leave behind mainly the impact wrench UAW line workers getting paid three times what a teacher or cop gets paid...or managers and executives getting paid three times more than what they achieve.
A microcosim of our societal problems; you're entitled to the money whether you earn it or not and regardless of results. Welfare, WIC, Union's, Wall Street Excesses...a battle between greed and redistribution of wealth.
The middle ground of hard work and rewards based on merit seems to be dead, and confiscatory taxes and immoral unethical money grubbing, sloth, indolence, and theft alive and thriving.
No flippin' bailout!
2008-11-17 22:47:37
Yeah... about that video...
I just had a chance to watch this video... and a couple additional things really stood out at me.
1. The video assumes that not only would GM vanish off the face of the Earth with no hint of ever having existed, but that ALL THREE automakers would do exactly the same thing. No salvage at all. Now, THAT'S pushing things off the deep end, folks. This wouldn't happen if a hurricane hit Detroit right this very instant (and they didn't make up for it with insurance claims... hah).
2. The video states that there are 610,000 people with an annual payroll of $54 billion. Let's be nice and assume benefits are included in that. It still works out to an average of OVER $88,500 per person. I wish that were the average at MY company, for sure! Also compare that to the next set of facts: I believe it was over 710,000 jobs at dealerships with a total payroll of $35 billion. THAT average is less than $50,000 per person, again assuming benefits included. I know they're not exactly comparable jobs, but it sure did stand out.
... so we have $88,500+ per person and oh-by-the-way all three are going to vanish into thin air if we don't loan them money. Can we be a bit more unrealistic, guys?
1. The video assumes that not only would GM vanish off the face of the Earth with no hint of ever having existed, but that ALL THREE automakers would do exactly the same thing. No salvage at all. Now, THAT'S pushing things off the deep end, folks. This wouldn't happen if a hurricane hit Detroit right this very instant (and they didn't make up for it with insurance claims... hah).
2. The video states that there are 610,000 people with an annual payroll of $54 billion. Let's be nice and assume benefits are included in that. It still works out to an average of OVER $88,500 per person. I wish that were the average at MY company, for sure! Also compare that to the next set of facts: I believe it was over 710,000 jobs at dealerships with a total payroll of $35 billion. THAT average is less than $50,000 per person, again assuming benefits included. I know they're not exactly comparable jobs, but it sure did stand out.
... so we have $88,500+ per person and oh-by-the-way all three are going to vanish into thin air if we don't loan them money. Can we be a bit more unrealistic, guys?
2008-11-18 07:43:49
And what about the world?
OK, fine, so "we" go ahead and let them suck the public teat (why not? one more piglet can barely be noticed, true)
What do then the Japanese, Korean and European carmakers, who, obviously don't read our papers and don't know what's going on? They smart up and come up to their governments with a choice even harder to ignore: Either you help us out or you will be losing our jobs to unfair competition. They do have a point and their own voting herd, so they get it.
And then, surprise, surprise!
We need another "credit". Unfair support given to foreign carmakers is making it difficult for us to survive. So they get it. Only this time round it is faster: there is a precedent and what the #@%, one more piglet can't be noticed (the banks, AIG and their sister have by then come back for more)
So we keep on substituting public debt by private debt in an effort to re-leverage. But public debt is not leveraged by hedge funds and we never quite "get there"
In the end, the country is broke, so we call up a meeting of G20 and ask the Japanese, the Chinese and Koreans to "give us something" But, as it happens, they have no money spare: their auto industries have sucked up all their surpluses because they were fighting unfair competition from...
Of course, there is always the army to ask the rest of the world for protection money (oooops, sorry, meant "security") And this too will work for a while. And then...
What do then the Japanese, Korean and European carmakers, who, obviously don't read our papers and don't know what's going on? They smart up and come up to their governments with a choice even harder to ignore: Either you help us out or you will be losing our jobs to unfair competition. They do have a point and their own voting herd, so they get it.
And then, surprise, surprise!
We need another "credit". Unfair support given to foreign carmakers is making it difficult for us to survive. So they get it. Only this time round it is faster: there is a precedent and what the #@%, one more piglet can't be noticed (the banks, AIG and their sister have by then come back for more)
So we keep on substituting public debt by private debt in an effort to re-leverage. But public debt is not leveraged by hedge funds and we never quite "get there"
In the end, the country is broke, so we call up a meeting of G20 and ask the Japanese, the Chinese and Koreans to "give us something" But, as it happens, they have no money spare: their auto industries have sucked up all their surpluses because they were fighting unfair competition from...
Of course, there is always the army to ask the rest of the world for protection money (oooops, sorry, meant "security") And this too will work for a while. And then...
2008-11-18 08:52:48
And what about the world?
lol...yes...very true.
If you wouldn't do it at home, don't do it in government.
If one of your kids gambles and drinks and drugs away their life do you swoop in and give them a rent free room and a $50,000 "bridge loan?". Are they going to magically get clean and go to AA and get a job?
No...they're going to continue doing what they've done and make a show at improvement. "Look, I went out and got the newspaper and made you coffee." OR "I only lost $5,000 at the craps table this weekend." OR "My friend really needed that $400 to pay back that loan to Guido."
Using money that isn't theirs to continue a dysfunctional life.
And of course, your other children are going to get fed up and either come asking for their piece of the pie or disassociate from you out of disgust.
It's not rocket science; why don't we get it?
2008-11-18 13:01:01
Real Life Ayn Rand Story
I recently read an Ayn Rand novel (Atlas Shrugged) and it seems her world is becoming a reality.
Dam shame..
Why does it matter if it's an American auto industry?? Toyota and Honda build there cars here anyway, and employ Americans. Don't forget, we jump started the Japanese auto industry after WW2. They're as close to being American as any other American company who offshores everything -which is every American company. I don't see the issue.
No more bailouts - to anyone! And, if you're too big to fail, get smaller fast.
my two cents...
Dam shame..
Why does it matter if it's an American auto industry?? Toyota and Honda build there cars here anyway, and employ Americans. Don't forget, we jump started the Japanese auto industry after WW2. They're as close to being American as any other American company who offshores everything -which is every American company. I don't see the issue.
No more bailouts - to anyone! And, if you're too big to fail, get smaller fast.
my two cents...
2008-11-18 13:34:18
Let them fail
The "big 3 " have been building Hummers and huge SUV's------they won't sell!
Also, the average wage with benefits for the big 3 is $75/hour; average wage for a Toyota worker in the US is $48/hr. Can someone explain how that can be overcome with a bailout? The spine of the union must be snapped for the big 3 to continue. Are the Feds willing to do that?
Also, the average wage with benefits for the big 3 is $75/hour; average wage for a Toyota worker in the US is $48/hr. Can someone explain how that can be overcome with a bailout? The spine of the union must be snapped for the big 3 to continue. Are the Feds willing to do that?
2008-11-18 14:09:39
Well so am I (essential to the world as we know it)
If we are going to have our money stolen to bail these deadbeats out then shouldn't we all get a new car? This is nonsense. They are a bad company and bad companies should fail. Then new and better companies can replace them. Otherwise, we will all pay for a new Hummer for someone else to drive. I am sick to death of this!
There is a new writer on the scene who is saying what we all feel. She is honest and tells it like it is:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/hamilton6.html
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/hamilton7.html
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/hamilton8.html
I know you will like them. Pass them on.
There is a new writer on the scene who is saying what we all feel. She is honest and tells it like it is:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/hamilton6.html
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/hamilton7.html
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/hamilton8.html
I know you will like them. Pass them on.
2008-11-18 14:27:01
uaw
people will live without the uaw.....many people in line to assemble and sweep floors for less money...who needs to pay there pension and healthcare with bailouts from the people.....i work for mine...crybaby uaw
2008-11-18 21:08:03
Real Life Ayn Rand Story
>Japanese auto industry after WW2. They're as close to being
>American as any other American company who offshores everything
> -which is every American company. I don't see the issue.
Amen! I see that Ford has launched a new factory in Russia, and I think it is GM that launched that nice new factory in Brazil.
So, what we see is "American" companies sending jobs overseas, and "Foreign" companies sending jobs to America.
Do they really think we are so stupid? Perhaps it doesn't matter if we are stupid as long as the politicians they have paid for do what they pay them for.
>American as any other American company who offshores everything
> -which is every American company. I don't see the issue.
Amen! I see that Ford has launched a new factory in Russia, and I think it is GM that launched that nice new factory in Brazil.
So, what we see is "American" companies sending jobs overseas, and "Foreign" companies sending jobs to America.
Do they really think we are so stupid? Perhaps it doesn't matter if we are stupid as long as the politicians they have paid for do what they pay them for.
2009-03-13 16:30:57
Let them fail
Amazing the way some people think, instead of requiring the Japanese auto companies to pay their workers a fair wage you want to lower yourself to their thinking by wanting to lower the fair wage being administered to American workers at American auto companies. It would do you good to read the biography of Henry Ford so you can understand what it means to be a quality employeer or you could even try reading about Sam Walton who also understood this concept, one which his children don't understand. The union didn't force GM into needless contracts with their slightly educated bargainers against GM's highly educated Ivy league lawyers, surely anyone can see that would never happen, but it was the concept that started with Mr. Ford and that was if you pay a worker enough to buy the product they are buiding then that business model will sell more of your product.
2009-03-13 16:39:25
uaw
This shows how little you know about pensions. I, a UAW worker have paid into MY pension for 32 years. This isn't a company give away. I have done the exact same thing you claim you have done so in calling me a cry baby you are also calling yourself one as well. How about we mature ourselves a little bit and start realizing that the problem with this country isn't about any laborer, any one worker, or anyone who gets up in the A.M. and has to grind it out to make their ends meet at the end of the week. This problem is corporate greed and until we all come together to attack that group then everyone is still going to suffer in the future.
2009-03-13 20:55:40
Let them fail
"requiring the Japanese auto companies to pay their workers a fair wage"
What a great idea.
Why don't we require this same thing of the Mexican government, the Chinese government, the Arab governmentss, the Eastern European countries, the African Countries, the South American governments, the Central Ameican governments and the whole global economy we live in!
You see, that is the crux of the issue. Its not what workers get paid...its what they get paid relative to each other. And, if all the workers get paid on the same scale as GM employees we are going to have inflation the likes of which the world has never seen.
What good does it do to keep your $70/hour pay (with benefits) if a loaf of bead costs $50?
In the end, the pay in third world countries has to rise and the pay in the United States must fall until they meet somewhere in the middle. Until then how do you expect us to compete?
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