The Occasional Observer

2 comments:

SingleWing said...

The problem with Mitt's editorial is that his facts on retiree and current overhead costs are outdated. The concessions gained from the UAW in 2007 will put GM and Toyota in a virtual equal playing field moving beyond 2010.

Bankruptcy comparisons between automotive industry and airlines is absolutely ridiculous. What happens if an airline goes bankrupt - you're maybe out $1000 for an airline ticket. If a car company goes under, who takes care of your warranty? Where do you get the car serviced? What happens to the resale value of this depreciating asset? Airline analogy to this situation is plain stupid.

Fine, let the car companies go bankrupt. How much government money are you going to spend on unemployment, expanding Medicaid and Medicare roles, retraining, taking over pensions? The costs will be astronomical. Maybe not AIG or Wall St. astronomical, but very high.

Automotive manufacturing accounts for something close to 1/3 of our domestic manufacturing capability. We have gutted America's manufacturing infrastructure during the last several year, and here is a way to put the final nails in its coffin.

The Japanese car companies, which do have assembly plants in this country, have little in the way of engineering and design centers in this country. Key technology and manufacturng is kept in Japan, and virtually all major decisions are made in Japan. Most management is imported from Japan. This is why every assembly plant job in an America has such a larger overall inpact on the economy than a Japanese assembly plant worker in the U.S.

SHK, you are a very smart dude, and a very red blooded American, and although I can look past you cheering for ND, I will never understand how the f*** you drive a Nissan.

11/19/2008 9:37 PM

SheaHeyKid said...

Perhaps the CEOs of the Big 3 shouldn't have flown private jets to their Washington meeting. Shows they are hardly serious about changing their cost structure.

I'd rather have a car company restructure under bankruptcy than an airline. At least I know my car won't suddenly stop flying when I'm at 10,000 feet.

Bottom line is WAY more concessions are needed from the unions, and quite honestly they should be broken up. Until the unions are removed, the Big 3 are going nowhere. They are a relic and simply killing the Big 3.

11/20/2008 7:21 AM