Arguments to save the American Auto Industry

[monoblanco]

I can't think of one.
And yet we're still considering it?
And yet you still find stories like this?

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/apwire/41d66b641682ae410835a463b8185505.htm

Scumbags

My apologies if there's another thread about this.

[Charlie]

http://www.autoextremist.com/

The last two weeks worth of rants.

Tick, tick, tick...


By Peter M. De Lorenzo


Detroit. So it has come down to this for General Motors: 100 years of living, breathing American industrial and social history is on the precipice of total disaster, with the once-glittering corporate icon facing certain collapse if some sort of government financial aid package is not put together in the next 60 days.

Think about that for a moment.

The company that basically powered this nation through a century of progress and helped this country muster the strength to fight world wars - while contributing immeasurably to the fabric of America and the development of our vast middle class - is on the verge of filing bankruptcy.

Unbeknownst to the legions of people out there in “fractured” America, the ones who fill the Internet with bile and who project such a level of viciousness and unbridled glee at the thought of the collapse of our domestic automobile industry as if it were – amazingly enough - some warped opportunity for celebration, there are countless towns, big and small, scattered all across this nation that have grown up with GM as their main employer and the main source of income for thousands of American families.

I am absolutely convinced that the people who hate “Detroit” and want it to implode have not even the faintest of clues as to what it really means if it were allowed to happen. To those instant experts out there who are reveling at the thought of a major part of our country’s industrial fabric collapsing, I say be careful what you wish for - because if GM is allowed to fail, it will take the entire domestic auto industry down with it - meaning thousands of suppliers and dealers in towns making up a cross-section of America will go under too.

For the record, there are around14,000 domestic-oriented dealers in the U.S. employing approximately 740,000 people with a payroll of around $35 billion – that’s billion with a “B.” But that’s just the dealer side of the equation. When you add in the suppliers and all of the associated businesses that either directly or indirectly depend on Detroit for their livelihoods, we’re talking almost three million people who would be out of work in a matter of just a few months, adding up to a $150 billion loss in personal income.

Let’s take California, for instance. Judging by our reader mail, there seems to be a large contingent of people out there who adamantly believe that “Detroit deserves to die” etc., etc., and that whatever happens “won’t affect me.” But GM and the domestic auto industry’s collapse will most definitely affect Californians as well. NUMMI, a joint operation between GM and Toyota (the Toyota Corolla, Toyota Tacoma and Pontiac Vibe are built there) and the only San Francisco Bay Area car factory, is already reducing shifts and may even shut down its Tacoma pickup truck line due to the burgeoning economic slowdown. One of our readers who understands the ramifications of a domestic industry collapse passed this interesting local news report along about NUMMI, which said, "There are tens of thousands of additional jobs on the line besides the 5,000 at NUMMI. There are over 1,000 suppliers in California that provide parts. They in turn employ 50,000 people."

That’s just one factory. Now multiply that by the staggering totals involved if GM - which has 22 stamping plants and 26 powertrain plants in North America on top of its assembly facilities - and the rest of the domestic automobile industry is allowed to fail. The tentacles of this kind of cataclysmic disaster would spread throughout the nation like a virus that could not be contained.

I really don’t know why it’s so easy for people out there to dismiss the collapse of the domestic automobile industry as being some minor event that won’t affect them in the least, because each person who is part of that figure of three million represents a real family and real human story, all across this nation. It’s the mom and pop diners, stores and peripheral neighborhood businesses that depend on the workers who toil at these factories and plants for their livelihoods too. There are towns all across America that would simply dry up and blow away if the local GM or supplier plant shut down. That’s not an exaggeration, that’s a simple fact.

I have been vilified of late by numerous critics for shifting my commentary to a more political tone over this election year, but I don’t offer any apologies. This country is not only in the throes of a financial crisis, it’s in the throes of a fundamental identity crisis as well. We as a nation have been lulled into thinking that things will work out and that any unpleasantness headed our way will be mere speed bumps on our journey to becoming a state of perpetual consumer bliss.

Well, it just doesn’t work that way, folks.

We live in a global economy that isn’t big on history or what we as a nation once did or stood for. We have to compete, or else we will arrive at a point when our national future will transition from being one of destiny to one being dictated to us by a unsavory set of circumstances and interests not in line in the least with our hopes, our dreams or our thinking.

In order to compete in this global economy we have to get smarter in our schools and with our educational policies. A high school graduation rate of 50-60 percent should be anathema in our inner cities instead of too often the rule. Remedial classes for kids entering college (who are not able to handle freshman classes) should become a thing of the past. And our teachers need to be compensated realistically and properly so more of our brightest people can sign up to help shape our kids’ futures.

Even though we as a nation don’t seem to have the stomach for hard work and sacrifice any longer - hell, I’m not sure those words and their meanings are even in the lexicon of vast swaths of our population - we must get tougher in the midst of this global economy, and we have to steel ourselves for the kind of battles we’ll face. And that means shoring up our manufacturing and supporting our homegrown industries that are so intertwined with communities all across this still great nation. It also means that President elect Obama will not only be President of the United States, he will have to be CEO of America, Inc. too.

And America Inc. not only needs to be rebuilt, it needs to be fortified with new determination because there are far too many talented and creative people in this nation who can do extraordinary things and we need to make the idea – the idea that we can innovate, create, build and manufacture things that are the envy of the world - cool again, and take pride in doing so as well.

In short, this nation needs a wake-up call.

Anyone who thinks this country will not be thrown into a full-blown depression if the domestic automobile industry is allowed to fail is simply kidding themselves. We are facing a perfect storm of events that could spell disaster if we as a nation don’t act and act fast. And it would take years for this country to recover too.

As I’ve said repeatedly the time for all of the idyllic, “let the free market run its course” hand-wringing is over. It’s far too late for that. This country’s leadership needs to get these loans to GM and the rest of the domestic automobile industry in the next 60 days, or life as we’ve come to know it in this country – and I mean every part of this country – not just here in the Motor City, will be severely and unequivocally altered.

That tick, tick, tick you hear?

It's the time running out on the future of America.

Let’s hope that what needs to get done will in fact get done, before it's too late.

Thanks for listening

-Charlie

[Hartge_H27]

i think they need to go bankrupt then reorgonize.

[TDE30]

"They arrived in D.C. via their own private jets..."

ROFL.

DIAF.

[DarkWing6]

Call the authorities! Vedubbin hacked Charlie's account.

[Massive Lee]

The only argument to help the Big Three is that if they collapse, a lot of direct and indirect workers will collapse at the same time. Not good for the economy. Nonetheless, the car nmanufacturers and their unions have prooved to be totally un-efficient for decades. So, I guess that unions must be removed or have the same conditions as the Honda workers in the US, saving $14 billions per year. CEOs should all be fired. And cars that reflect the 21st century should start being designed. Most US cars are what you would expect from the 1960s, just shinnier.

Before being handed loans and checks, the car manufacturers should come up with a very strong plan. And travel on moped...

[John1180]

I'm surprised they don't just close their doors on their US divisions and concentrate their business in the rest of the world where they make more interesting and successful products. They could become the new "imported" car companies of the future!

[E30 Cabrio]

The Labor Unions are killing the Goose that laid the Golden Egg.

http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosinsider/0510/17/A01-351179.htm

Paying employee's $30.00+ per hour + benefits to sit around all day to do nothing.

And the line workers are paid around 100K per year is you include benefits.

I have a few of my Corvette buddies who worked at the Bowling Green, KY plant where they build Corvettes and a few in Detroit and the consensus is that the Unions and their ever growing demands are killing the industry.

[cferb]

I saw this on TV, it was priceless to see them ask them

I know they're important to the economy, but fuck, if we're gonna save your ass, YOU should be contributing too it. I say we liquidate their assets and see if they still need a bailout GM and Ford are poorly managed at best, I'm sick of their ideas of tricking the consumer into buying their products, it obviously isn't working, maybe try making decent products?

I'm just having a hard time seeing, even with labor laws and unions, how domestic cars cost as much or more than their foreign competitors who have to pay all these importation fees and have stricter regulations, while maintaining a lower quality.

[madjurgen]

If the private jet thing pissed you off I suggest you dont read this.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/articles/djf500/200811191506DOWJONESDJONLINE000837_FORTUNE5.htm

[Charlie]

If the private jet thing pissed you off I suggest you dont read this.

http://money.cnn.com/news/newsfeeds/...7_FORTUNE5.htm

Mullaly's been at Ford for less than 18 months, why should he take all the flack for 35+ years of shit decisions? Didn't the previous CEO of Ford do that "$1" gimmick a few years ago?

-Charlie

[nando]

I say break up GM, just let them go. They have been slowly going out of business for years, giving them a bailout would be like pissing into the wind. I also think ford and chrysler will have a better chance at surviving with GM gone. The unions have definitely hung themselves by fleecing the companies for all they are worth, I don't feel bad for them at all.

Too bad about the vette's though, the trucks and caddys aren't too bad either. the rest of it is crap and won't be missed. Maybe they can sell the vette to somebody else.. 2011 Ford corvette? BMW corvette?

there are way too many automakers, and too many of them are making shit. expect to see 5 or more disappear by the time this is over.

[MarkD]

I say break up GM, just let them go. They have been slowly going out of business for years, giving them a bailout would be like pissing into the wind. I also think ford and chrysler will have a better chance at surviving with GM gone. The unions have definitely hung themselves by fleecing the companies for all they are worth, I don't feel bad for them at all.

Too bad about the vette's though, the trucks and caddys aren't too bad either. the rest of it is crap and won't be missed. Maybe they can sell the vette to somebody else.. 2011 Ford corvette? BMW corvette?

there are way too many automakers, and too many of them are making shit. expect to see 5 or more disappear by the time this is over.

Last year I worked on a special project for GM through a supplier, and I wish I could tell you what they were building, but I can't. If I did, you would realise why I don't give a rat's @ss if they went down the drain. The one thing I can say is that is was an Escalade with all sorts of crazy features in it. Companies who actually build cars like what I was writing firmware for should not be allowed to survive.

[Charlie]

Last year I worked on a special project for GM through a supplier, and I wish I could tell you what they were building, but I can't. If I did, you would realise why I don't give a rat's @ss if they went down the drain. The one thing I can say is that is was an Escalade with all sorts of crazy features in it. Companies who actually build cars like what I was writing firmware for should not be allowed to survive.

I have a question for people villifying the automakers for building & developing SUVs: Is it wrong of them to build a vehicle the market demands? For the past 17-18 years, the market has demanded bigger cars & trucks. So they put their money into that. They wanted small cars in the 80s, and got those, that demand disappeared towards the end of the decade. No one wanted a Geo Metro in 1998, so why spend tons of a limited resource on a car that won't sell? Isn't this part of the whole "let the market regulate itself, free market rules, yaddayadda"? They built cars that the public wanted, that got them a huge profit. They've also built a lot of smarter midsize cars in the past 3-4 years, but the public didn't want them. They continued to buy trucks. I'm not a huge "rah-rah" big 3 supporter, but this is a really unfair "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation for the Big 3.

And to see Lee, Mr raving socialist bash on Unions, I'm cracking up over here.

-Charlie

[cferb]

I understand building what the people want, but they focus too much on that. They build what they think people want, put all their energy into the features they think people want, and in the end they have a pile of garbage because they don't put anything into actually making it a good car. I don't want speakers that fold out when you open the hatch, I don't want Sync or whatever that crap is called, I want a good car, that should come first, then the features. Basically what I see is a KIA with a bunch of gimmick features and a (too)high price tag

Mullaly's been at Ford for less than 18 months, why should he take all the flack for 35+ years of shit decisions? Didn't the previous CEO of Ford do that "$1" gimmick a few years ago?

-Charlie

I can't argue with that. But props to the Chrysler exec that said he would do it(assuming he would actually go through with it)