What is Digg?Sponsored by Travelzoo
Take Advantage of Ridiculously Low Holiday Airfares view!
travelzoo.com - Flights $52 and up for Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Year. But move on it now.
133 Comments
- ScrewedThePooch, on 04/20/2009, -13/+46Please kill this fat old dinosaur already. It is just eating more resources and ***** out more unemployed workers everyday. Let GM deckare bankruptcy and rebuild or sell off their assets to new smaller companies.
- mobislink, on 04/21/2009, -3/+31I think most of us already have the cars we need. Now that the economy is tanking people are no longer buying the cars they want. People will just repair what they have. Mechanics should have good job security for the next couple of years.
They need to re-tool these factories and re-train the workers to make wind turbine parts or some other green tech equipment that will be in demand for a while. - amabaie, on 04/21/2009, -2/+20I pity the folks in Michigan. Of all the places in the country, perhaps in the world, that is where the recession is hitting hardest, where the most people find themselves suddenly out of work. It's not just the auto workers, but all the surrounding economy. When enough auto workers get laid off, they cut back their spending and stores in the region have to cut staff. There is a huge riplle effect.
- haikuFU, on 04/21/2009, -4/+21The management at GM is very likely the reason they are in their current situation. Cut em loose. Get some nimbleness back in that company, reduce bureaucracy, and stomp out the good ol' boy culture.
- Gemfinder, on 04/20/2009, -5/+19Cutting out management to qualify for government assistance?
I'm pretty sure that comes under the "Unintended Effects" heading. Does anyone else foresee an efficiency crash-and-burn? - WizardofWor, on 04/21/2009, -0/+10As one that lives in Michigan there is no doubt about that, Coming up on 5 months out of work and counting.
- one504, on 04/21/2009, -0/+10If you are middle-management at GM, I'm guessing this isn't a huge surprise.
- acknotSW, on 04/21/2009, -0/+9We have been going through a 1 state recession for 5 or 6 years now.
Qoute from one of my system dynamics professors.
"Get your degree and get the hell out of michigan" - inactive, on 04/21/2009, -0/+8hey you diggers... when you call on GM to fail, you are calling on a bunch of Obama voters to be out of a job. Think about that? You are killing your own with your words.
- Exedous, on 04/21/2009, -0/+8In other words, they're laying off people in order to qualify for welfare.
- lava, on 04/21/2009, -0/+7You can't break what's already broken
- inactive, on 04/21/2009, -0/+7Ah, this is a trend that's sure to help the economy.
- thelove, on 04/21/2009, -0/+6I don't mean to be insensitive, but is anyone honestly surprised by this?
- mjk340, on 04/21/2009, -1/+7The union workers would be the 'blue collar' guys. They have their own issues separate from the multitiered matrixed management.
- Shiftgood, on 04/21/2009, -11/+16Owning a Camaro in high school and an ol 71 Impala makes you fairly attached to this "fat old dinosaur". I too want to see it declare bankruptcy so it can restructure... but to call out that you want to see it 'killed' just pisses me off.
Why wish for something to fail and have peoples lives collapse? why not wish for a smooth restructure and hope their cars like the volt, cts, camaro and tahoe carry them through this transition into the next era of automotive evolution?
Or is it like watching a celebrity get thrown under the bus? Where we all chime in about how ***** they are so we dont have to feel ***** about ourselves.
Anyways.. people that just want to walk around hating and talking with a big mouth are going to make GM an underdog in the next few years. Which means public opinion will slowly start to defend it because they're tired of listening to people like you. And by then the volt will be on the market.. and GM will recover.
dont believe me? you will. - DjDaveATX, on 04/21/2009, -2/+7To all who suggest a bankruptcy for GM: Your public welfare money will soon be supporting many, many more unemployed workers all across the country (the worst situation will of course be in Michigan). The real solution will be for GM to shed the high costs of UAW labor. I cannot believe that GM, Ford and Chrysler would allow the UAW to set the hourly rate for a middle-aged button pusher more than I make as an engineer. The problem across the board right now is NO ONE is buying cars. Speak with your dollars America.
- AmericanNsrgncy, on 04/21/2009, -4/+9They should have just let them fail...
"The freedom to fail is an essential part of freedom."
~Ron Paul on the Auto Bailout - nepidae, on 04/21/2009, -0/+5I moved out of Michigan 5 years ago, packed my car full and drove west. Best decision of my life.
- Trollemite, on 04/21/2009, -0/+4Yeah while I was contracting for Chrysler it amazed me that a person emptying trash made $10 an hour more than I did working in IT.
- pinchduck, on 04/21/2009, -4/+8Actually their cars are pretty good. Buick just beat Lexus in the latest J.D. Power survey. The problem is that they decided to "save" money in the 70's & 80's and built ***** cars then. That has been the gift that has kept on giving: They can't shake their reputation. Also, bailing out corporations certainly isn't an American phenomenon. The Europeans have been experimenting with it for decades, with mixed results at best.
- darkened, on 04/21/2009, -8/+12If you want to cut out bureaucracy from GM you need to fire the unions as a whole. The leverage they have over the design process at GM is absurd, the fact if 1 employee picks up a wrench another employee dropped GM can be sued by the union for contract violations, absurd. The union is the problem but not because of employee wages.
- Trollemite, on 04/21/2009, -0/+4That's what college grads have been doing for years. I've read before that it's in the 80% range for the number of college grads that leave the state. That's not a good thing for Michigan.
- momomathew, on 04/21/2009, -0/+4Your inclusion of Cadillac couldn't be more wrong.
http://blog.chicagolandcadillacdealers.com/the-cad ...
http://autos.nytimes.com/2008/Cadillac/CTS/237/263 ...
I absolutely love driving my CTS. - BorsKaegel, on 04/21/2009, -2/+6Your tax dollars at work.
- brad3378, on 04/21/2009, -1/+5You've got to be kidding me?
The new V6 powered Camaro gets 305 Horsepower *AND* 29 MPG
You can't even get that combination from a plain Jane Honda Accord or a Toyota Corolla. - MWeather, on 04/21/2009, -4/+8"Owning a Camaro in high school and an ol 71 Impala makes you fairly attached to this "fat old dinosaur"."
I know what you mean. I wish I never sold my DMT Delorean. But that doesn't mean DMT didn't deserve to go out of business. - Anand999, on 04/21/2009, -4/+8You think having more managers improves efficiency? Do you, by any chance, happen to be in management?
- inactive, on 04/21/2009, -1/+4Cars have a reasonable useful life. Every day people crash cars, they continue to rust, people drive them, etc. Eventually they will have to be replaced by something, and it is no secret that whoever is around in 2-3 years is going to hit the motherload as literally tens of millions of vehicles will be sold in a very short timespan when people will have the income to do so.
- Rikkochet, on 04/21/2009, -4/+7Just a point of advice: if you want people to listen to your "reasoned" argument on keeping it afloat, don't start your argument with nostalgic nonsense about some fond memory you have about them.
I loved George Carlin, too, but if he were braindead and in a coma, I wouldn't hesitate to tell them to pull the plug nomatter how much I enjoyed the 7 dirty words. - publiclurker, on 04/21/2009, -1/+4The people in the UAW are the ones that actually make the cars you inbred simpleton.
- mksmothers, on 04/21/2009, -0/+3What I do as an individual has very little impact on the economy at large. Independent car raters like consumer reports place most american cars as below average. By the way I own a Jeep liberty (American) and a Chrysler PT Cruiser (American).
Defensive much? - edster, on 04/21/2009, -2/+51600 more families jobless, I guess I'm not qualified for politics because I fail to see how this is "stimulating" the economy.
- YoWhatDaFuxUp, on 04/21/2009, -1/+4The best trucks are built Ford tough anyway
http://www.killsometime.com/pictures/images/Ford.j ... - Dundaman, on 04/21/2009, -0/+3I think its a case of sacrifice 1600 to save thousands more. However unfortunate that is. There is no good way out of this mess.
- schoate09, on 04/21/2009, -3/+6Buick is a small percent of their sales. Their larger selling brands, Chevy, Pontiac, Cadillac, still fall behind Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and Subaru in reliability.
There are constant mechanical and interior accessory problems. I love GM's cars, but I wish I could buy one over a Japanese car and get the same piece of mind, but I can't. - adc86, on 04/21/2009, -0/+3Now if people would just apply that concept to Congress...
- momomathew, on 04/21/2009, -1/+4I drive a Cadillac and I love it and I will continue to drive a long, long, long after your Kia had died!
- Trollemite, on 04/21/2009, -0/+3Yeah, it's pretty ***** here. I was laid off early last month myself. I try to get my resume to at least five new places every day (that's my minimum) but so far I've only had one interview. Here's hoping they don't pick one of the other 400-500 people that most likely applied for the job as well. The problem here is that there are just no jobs and the atmosphere for starting a new business isn't very promising since nobody has any money to spend if you did.
- moeursalen, on 04/21/2009, -1/+4They ought to fire Ron GreedyFinger, UAW chief, to begin with and then conduct a vote with laid off employees as to whether they want the UAW to represent them still.
- Spindig, on 04/21/2009, -1/+3The fact that they are not doing well is due to a lot of things, not only management... high union wages, health and retirement benefits, government regulations and the economy are a few other factors.
- TdotFUNK, on 04/22/2009, -0/+2What happens when the government runs out of money?
- inactive, on 04/22/2009, -0/+2JCEEZ - Honda runs forever until it needs a new transmission at 25k miles. Google it. And Corolla has just had the whole run in with engine gunk.
- dannomite, on 04/21/2009, -0/+2Why doesn't the government do this sort of trimming down? It's about time that the government undergoes the same cost saving measures that many companies are forced to do.
- louiebaur, on 04/21/2009, -0/+2Yea totally
- Spindig, on 04/21/2009, -0/+2and the laid off people will get unemployment (more welfare)...
- moeursalen, on 04/21/2009, -0/+2All you see in the mountains around here are Ford F-150s. We have 2 Fords since we went back to buying from U.S. makers. Previously, I had a Toyota "Truck of the Year" which didn't live up to expectations. It was okay, though. Later, I bought a compact pickup, a Ford Ranger but I'd kill for a 2009 Ford-150 with a crew cab (4 doors). You almost need a tracked vehicle for the roads in Pennsylvania...
- SpeedSteamBoat, on 04/21/2009, -1/+3Get out? And go where, exactly? Have you tried getting a job in the US, let alone in Michigan, lately when all you have is two or three decades of experience in the auto industry?
Tell you what. If you find jobs for those people I'm sure many of them would gladly leave. Right now it seems they are still receiving a paycheck, and there is literally no advantage to quitting (you can't collect unemployment if you quit, for example) unless you can walk into another job.
Besides, it's not as if GM is going to fall down on top of them or something even it fails. They aren't standing under a falling tree. What in the hell would be the point of quitting? - bkripper, on 04/21/2009, -0/+2HJG - Who funds the DoD? That's right, the government you loon. That's who built ARPANET with our tax dollars. Many people worked on it but it was taxpayer money. And Al Gore did do a lot to generate the funding for what we now call the internet. That's the problem with the right wing- never found a truth they won't distort. It's amazing, do you feel Rick Wagoner should of kept his job? More of these losers need to leave without a golden parachute.
- brad3378, on 04/21/2009, -0/+2I'm coming up on 4 years of working outside of Michigan.
I signed up with a Digg.com account a month later to pass the time away from my house in the Detroit area.
My big "Holy *****" moment was waiting in line for *OVER* seven hours behind 300+ people at the Unemployment office in Livonia only to be given a telephone number to call.
Hopefully I'm taking the job of a Toyota/Honda owner in the state where I'm working now. As goes the Auto Industry, As goes the USA. -
Show 51 - 100 of 150 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is 