Something for nothing: GM and the unions

[RapidRonnie]

The unions may suck, but they were the reason why we did not have globalism rammed up our ass for decades in this country. And a lot of the reason American unions are as ignorannt as they are is because corporate management was just as ignorant and vicious as they ever were and worse. Finally, Australian unions are as bad or worse than American ones, thus neatly undermining your premise.

I would support busting the UAW down when you also show me you can and will bust down the American Medical Association and the state medical boards, the American Bar Association and the state bars, and other government protectors of overpaid skunks. If the UAW, Teamsters and AFL_CIO had kep their members from putting in ignorant people like Reagan and Newt Gingrich we might have an industrial base now.

The real reason Detroit does not build the car Americans really want is because Americans want big affordable cars. Corporate CAFE regulations say no.

 

[RapidRonnie]

But if unionized workers producing widgets get higher pay by reducing widget manufacturers' profit rates, do you think there will be as much invested in producing widgets when higher rates of return can be realized by investing elsewhere? The rate of return on widgets cannot remain permanently below rates of returns in other industries. Widget prices will have to rise -- and that means lower sales and lower employment. There is no free lunch, no way to get something for nothing.

Thomas Sowell is a nationally syndicated columnist.

Thomas Sowell is a dumbass Uncle Tom.

What is killing the rate of return in manufacturing is allowing an absolute advantage to foreign manufacturers and heavily subsidizing Mexican-illegal-employing suburban ticky-tack house building on arable land and big box shithole stores. Enforce serious house building codes and taxing imports will make things come around. And we do need to tax:
we have a killer debt.

 

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

The real reason Detroit does not build the car Americans really want is because Americans want big affordable cars. Corporate CAFE regulations say no.

That is bullcrap. It is like a meeting I was in today, the GM listed 6 goals of the company, one of which was cost containment, then proceeded to outline a new plan of his that would cost more money than what we were doing. I got up and pointed out that the only goal on the list that was incompatible with all the other 5 was cost containment. After a bit of weak argument which I pretty easily disproved, the GM admitted that the cost containment goal was bullcrap, and only listed because he was going to present the list to a vendor.

Every person walking around is going to say they want the stuff they want cheaper, if that were really true we would not have Lexus dealerships, and luxury cars tooling around.

Americans may want big cars, but they only give lip service to the idea of getting cheap cars. If they really wanted cheap cars they would walk into those ghost town dealerships and strike deals, everybody knows that a dealership eager to sell cars is going to be willing to give you great pricies, while one that has customers beating down the door has no incentive to give great prices.

In the United States today, most consumers make purchasing decisions based on good marketing and slick advertising. They like to think they make buying decisions based on research, but when was the last time you ever saw a new car purchaser walking into a dealerhip with a stack of service manuals for the new cars he's looking at for comparison? Bullcrap, what they do is walk in with a stack of slick glossies and other marketing and sales literature and think that they have done "research"

If GM and Ford are having problems selling cars the answer is pretty apparent to me - their marketing people are fucking incompetent. Every other major consumer manufacturer in the country has figured out how to market to Americans, and they start with a pair of boobs on a young hot 22 year old model. But Ford and Chevy just don't get it anymore.

Shit, the demographics today of Americans can be summed up pretty simply - a big shitpile of 50-and-older empty nesters with money burning a hole in their pocket to be spent. And they are spending it on products that give them the illusion they are younger. Why do you think cosmetic surgery is going great guns today? The foreign carmakers have caught on. Go to http://automobiles.honda.com and you see a big black Civic that is aimed at the midlife crisis men. Go to www.chevy.com and you see a big fat Tahoe that looks like a 70's station wagon with a lift kit on it.

Ted