GM Missing the Boat on Hybrids

GM and George Bush: two American icons locked into the 19th Century. I think both of them are an embarassment.

 

the people who I feel empathy for are the retirees. What happens to someone in their 70-80's when your pension fails and your not employable. It's food stamps and sleeping in a cardboard box in some alley. And GB et-al are not about to admit the administration was negligent in allowing the company's to gut the pension plan for the companies gain with no regard for the retirees. The company I could care less about, the above group has no choice. You gave your working life for the company and then have them rob you of your income I do belive will result in blood shed. The term will not be "going postal" it'll be "GM'n them".

 

Let's party like it's 1899 !!!

 

"Raiding the pension plan" isn't something new that was created by Dubya. It has been going on for a long time. Eg is how Lay at Enron and Ebbers at WorldCom pulled their scams during the 90's.

Scary thing is, over the past 15 years regulations have been relaxed to the point of being laughable. If the regulations even existed in the first place: here in Canada there is nothing comparable to the SEC.

The recent failure in Manitoba of the government-sponsored Crocus Fund (Supposed to invest in Manitoba infrastructure and business) is a great example. Lots of pension fund and personal funds wiped out, around $300 million by last count.

For a province this size, that is a *huge* amount. I was almost tempted to put some savings into it, as it was sponsored by the Manitoba government with good tax breaks. Had a bad feeling and didn't, boy am I glad I didn't.

 

umm GM reitrees will have an awful lot of company.

that is the #1 topic in the news right now.

as i type this bush is having a press conference to sway opinion of one person to his pension plan.

that will leave a grand total of two people in favor of his plan.

 

This release from today sums up the previous discussion nicely:

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM - news) on Wednesday warned its 2005 earnings will come in as much as 80 percent below its prior forecast, reflecting lower auto sales and production in North America and rising U.S. health-care costs.

"GM North America is, simply put, our 800 pound gorilla, and today's announcement shows how important it is that we get this business right," Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner, told analysts and reporters on a conference call.
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full story - http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor..._nm/autos_gm_dc
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Meanwhile GM takes a big chunk of the $1.5 BILLION that we taxpayers are providing courtesy of the Bush administration fuel cell program. GM says they'll have some fuel cell cars out in 2010. At the rate they are going they won't even exist in 2010.

 

Tony:

Social Security was a nice dream when there were +10 working folks for every retired person, lots of babies being born, not to mention the average life expectancy back then meant few ever lived long enough to collect SS.

Once all the Boomers retire, and start demanding all that $$$ health care like bypass operations and magic blue pills, the system will simply collapse. It's impossible to continue.

Look at Japan with a debt of over 150% GDP, their population is quickly aging and their birth rate has plummeted. What happens to Japan in the next decade or two will happen to us in three to four decades.

That's almost an oxymoron. Typically, those who want the gov out of their lives also tend to enforce a high degree of austerity in their lives. I personally have no debt, no credit cards (They are responsible for most of our current economic mess), and have tried to diversify in many options.

The problem is, money is just paper now. It isn't really "backed" by anything. So once the economy goes t*** up, it doesn't matter if you have money set aside or not: you'll be in the same boat as everybody else.

That's a pleasant thought, isn't it??

 

I just saw a segment on CNN about GM's projected loss. It is also interesting to note that they plan to spend $1 billion on truck and SUV plants this year. They better wake up - FAST! Oil is now over $56 a barrel and even OPEC admits that the price is out of their control - demand has finally outstripped supply. $80 oil is now a very real possibility.

What concerns me the most is the ripple effect of a failure by GM. There are hundreds of suppliers that will be forced into bankruptcy and thousands of people that will be unemployed. This will cripple the US economy worse than most can imagine. As much as I dislike GM, their board of directors should act now to make drastic changes, since the Wagonner-Lutz team has been a total failure. America, I'm afraid, is going to pay the price of these people's ignorance.

 

Why do the rich tolerate the US going down the tubes? Do they expect the next Administration to fix everything? Or will they just move to Switzerland?

 

Yes, very interesting isn't it? Almost as if Lutz et al are totally removed from reality. I bet they will go crying to the gov when folks refuse to buy their giant SUV's that get 12 MPG and instead buy more Prius cars. For that reason, Lutz et al can go f*** themselves.

Oh, hmmm, that's something that never enters into the equation. Never has and never will. If GM went t*** up tomorrow, it would wipe out hundreds of billions of dollars of pension funds and cause a panic on Wall St. At the least, another bad recession. The "D" word might happen too.

Don't depend on GM's B.O.D. Fire the lot and put in folks who don't have their heads up their a**. The Shareholders could demand this ... if they had the guts to.

 

Richard:

Because the truly megawealthy are far above us pions, and they actually want a very bad economic event to happen. Plans are afoot, and they bode ill for us.

 

actually the total will be 2.2 billion for new truck and suv factories and to refit and expand the existing ones

i saw the same CNN report. immediately before that report they had just reported that 11,000 GM workers would be forced to take vacation in the next week because the huge supply of trucks that arent moving will cause 4 plants to shut down to minimal operational levels to last at least 2 weeks.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(jayman\";p=\"73053)</div>

They should realize that (1) things can quickly get out of hand, and (2) there's not much satisfaction in being the rulers of a dunghill.

 

Richard:

You're implying a level of common sense that is lacking in them.

 

Those wealthy people you allude to have already purchased carribean estates if not their own islands where they have offshore "corporations" set up to avoid taxes. Many good ole' US companies are really international entities at this point and will close shop here and reopen elsewhere.

Basically, they are not going to be rulers of a dugheap, they will be long gone after laying the dung.

 

:iagree

 

Just of few random ramblings, but.....


Isn't this the same death knell everyone predicted after the 70's oil embargo? :roll:

GM is the largest purchaser of Viagra in the world! :mrgreen:

The EV1 was an environmental disaster. You have to judge a car, or anything for that matter, on its life cycle environmental effect. The building, driving, creating the electricity to charge and ultimate destruction of the EV! will release nearly 10 times the lead and other pollutants into the environment than driving a 1976 buick on leaded gasoline for 9 years.

The Prius is light years more environmentally friendly than the EV1.

If "The Graduate" were made today, "Hydrogen, its the future." Whether through fuel cells (and not them damnable methanol or gasoline converter diilios) full H2 combustion engines or H2 electric hybrids.

:evillaugh:

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Devil's Advocate\";p=\"73456)</div>

Yep.

It's logical to expect higher prices, especially thanks to the Kyoto Protocol. The well running dry in 10-20 years? I doubt it.

 

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Devil's Advocate\";p=\"73456)</div>

When I think of hydrogen I always think of the Hindenburg. I think the biggest obstacle there is the lack of distribution networks.