So GM's filing for bankruptcy today ...

Maybe they would. Or maybe a couple of the GM "brands" like Cadillac, Chevrolet or Buick will survive independently. I hope that's the case, for the sake of Michigan workers and others around the country.

I guess what I'm getting at is, we import just about every product we use in day-to-day life, other than our food.

At one time, "made in the USA" actually mattered to consumers and the nation in general. Now I guess we turn a blind eye to things like cheap foreign steal being "dumped" here, just like we turn a blind eye to worker abuses and save a few bucks each week at Wal-Mart.

Look, I like to save money just like everybody else, but when nearly all of our cars, farm equipment and other heavy industrial products are made by companies and workers in other nations, it makes me uneasy.

EDIT: That would be "cheap foreign STEEL." Where's a good copy editor when I need one?

 

Yeah, Mike, tack a $2/gallon tax on people that need their cars to go on job interviews because they're currently laid off. All that's going to do is cripple the economy more. Other than that, I agree with him on the concept of bullet trains. I'll never understand why there's been so little evolution in train travel in this country when...oh yeah, airline industry lobbyists. Nevermind.

Ohh and Mike, if you start building eco-friendly buses (an oxymoron if there ever was one), who the fuck is going to buy them when every municipal transit authority in this country is damn near broke?

 

Mike needs to shut the fuck up.

 

I for one simply refuse to accept FOX News' blame on the unions that made assembly line workers wealthy at $30 an hour. Good times deserved good wages and that's what drove that up to that point. None of those blinded journalists (and this is my problem with the fringe right media) acknowledge anything about the lack of effort of the industry management to creatively keep pace...it's all about the unions not conceding enough over the years.

 

Another point that Moore made with his piece (and one he's hardly on the fringe for making) is that the Big Three concentrated on keeping its monopoly power, including shedding workers in times of high profit, in whatever way possible except making a quality car people would want. Hmmm, sound like any other industry we know?

 

Once and for all...it's YOOPERS! No friggin U in it.
And it's your left hand...not a foot to show where you live. Thumb up for the Keweenaw Peninsula...and yes the Trolls (right hand of Michigan) blow. I left last year and am glad to be far out of Jennfer Grandholm's "kingdom".

 

Interesting stat I read. GM right now has 6,000 workers in four plants in Indiana (and one plant with 1,000 workers is gone next year). As of 1981, there were 48,000 in eight.

Just in case you're wondering why the Midwest looks like it does.

 

I would imagine technology in manufacturing has also eliminated a lot of these jobs too. I wonder how many things are done now by robotic arms now that used to be done by people.

 

My guess would be damn near everything.

 

I would say that some of that decline reflects GM spinning off parts divisions, except that most of those places are closed now. I think Delphi in Kokomo might be the only one left.

 

so, do i have to keep making my car payment?



on a serious note, my dad is a gm employee. the last few months have been filled with so much uncertainty, and he still doesn't know if his dealership is part of the 40 percent cutback.

 

Oh, I should note my taxes are either going to go up a fair amount, or the potholes will never be filled, because about half of my 'burb's sales tax revenue comes from auto dealers. Two are already tapped for shutdowns, including a Dodge dealer that got a TIF basically a gift for the local auto dealers association in exchange for not stringing the mayor up by the balls for letting a Carmax into town.