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Goodbye, GM ...by Michael Moore

michaelmoore.com — «It is with sad irony that the company which invented "planned obsolescence" -- the decision to build cars that would fall apart after a few years so that the customer would then have to buy a new one -- has now made itself obsolete.»

Who dugg this? Made popular Jun 2, 2009

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  • tylercomp, on 06/02/2009, -7/+185I just want bullet trains...
  • GardenRetreat, on 06/01/2009, -54/+217Why does Michael Moore get such a bad rap from conservatives?!? He really has many bold but forward thinking ideas that should definately be considered. Like governors Bloomberg, Schwarzenegger and Rendell who started Building America’s Future coalition and emphasizes the importance of train system in this country to cut down on the need for cars on our over used road system.

    I wish that people would realize that we are at a very important crossroad where we can keep doing things the way we always have and make some real effective changes that will take us into the 22nd century!!
  • calcm, on 06/01/2009, -41/+180Wow. Never in my life would I think I would actually agree with Michael Moore. Hell must have frozen over. Because what he says is very true. Maybe it is because he grew up in Flint, Michigan but his wisdom on this particular issue is worth reading and implementing.

    Very good Mr. Moore. Your words are well thought out and your mind is very sharp on the subject of GM.
  • HappyScrappy, on 06/02/2009, -23/+156I dunno if GM invented planned obsolescence, but they sure practiced it in the 70s and early 80s. It has a lot to do with what went wrong.

    But I think Michael Moore is pushing that message so hard because he doesn't want to go back on the flawed premise of his movie "Roger and Me". Back in the 80s, GM claimed the union was killing them, that the contracts being pushed by the UAW were too expensive, that GM couldn't afford them. Moore said hogwash and pointed out that in the short term, GM was doing fine.

    But a big part of what hurt GM was that these contracts were murderous. The benefits packages being promised were too large and would eventually break GM. And far from GM punishing the UAW, the UAW punished GM. Every time another nickle of revenue showed up, the UAW wanted 2/3rds of it. GM said that they would be forced to move out of state to save money, and lo and behold they did. And Honda and Toyota never even showed up in Michigan, because they knew what was good for them.

    Moore complained ardently that it was insulting to expect Flint workers to assemble Helmac lint rollers, that they deserved to be making cars. Well, by insisting that they were too good to bend, the Flint workers have created a situation where making cars isn't an option for them anymore.

    Now what, Michael?

    The UAW strangled Flint, and Moore will never admit that. And GM, through not standing up to the UAW because it would be difficult, mismanaged their way into oblivion.
  • clvngodess, on 06/01/2009, -39/+148There are some very valid and relevant ideas proposed by Michael Moore. WE should pay attention and let our politicos in on this. After all WE now own GM.
  • MrSparkle666, on 06/02/2009, -10/+69Really!? You don't understand why conservatives give him a bad rap?

    I'm a progressive democrat and even I can't stand Micheal Moore. I generally agree with his stances on issues, and I respect him as a talented filmmaker, but when the guy opens his mouth I just want to vomit. He has a way of cheapening left-wing positions by infusing everything with gaudy sentimentalism. I see him as the left-wing version of Rush Limbaugh. He can't even understand why anyone would have a different belief system than his own, and he has a deep haltered for the other side that infects everything he does. The same way liberals can't understand why anyone with half a brain would ever listen to Rush, most conservatives don't understand how anyone with half a brain could ever stomach Michael Moore. They are two sides of the same coin.
  • Halsfield, on 06/02/2009, -5/+53How about instead of deciding who is to blame we try to solve the problem? I have yet to go a single day without hearing a customer, family member , or friend blame someone else (usually wall street, fat cat ceos, bail out companies, obama, etc) for their current problems. We're in a lot of trouble and the only way we are going to get through it is getting back to our roots, cutting the fat, and not wasting all our time deciding who should be strung up.

    We need to work towards solving our economic and social problems as quickly as possible and get back on the right track. It is pathetic that for every news story I hear about initiatives to help get the economy and the nation in general back on the right track I hear 20 stories about corporate greed, bailouts, and how much worse the recession is now compared to yesterday. Even if you do blame the ceos of the insurance companies and the wallstreet elite, they're are so rich and untouchable that you can hate them until you're blue in the face and they'll still be sipping martinis on the beach earning a hefty percent on their wealth.
  • wvaughan, on 06/02/2009, -27/+71Every time I make the effort to read something written by Michael Moore, I come to the same sad conclusion; this man is bat-*****-*****-crazy! A couple weak points in his article:

    1) He claims that GM sending jobs oversees played a significant role in families not buying GM cars. Does he really think that the families of laid off workers are no longer driving? Of course not!

    2) He makes no mention of the negative impact of the UAW on GM's operations, expenses, etc. Apparently they didn't play a large enough role in the decline of GM for them to shoulder any of the blame he dishes out in his article. They are simply the victims.

    3) He recommends that we use federal tax dollars to keep GM's workforce employed, convert their factories, and build a transcontinental rail system. He say's "The fact that the technology already exists for us to go from New York to L.A. in 17 hours by train, and that we haven't used it, is criminal". It not criminal, it's simple economics. No one wants or needs a transcontinental passenger rail system. They can take a flight from LA to NY in six hours for $500.

    4) He wants to raise gas prices by two dollars with a federal gas tax. That will have a huge negative impact on all industries that rely on transportation. Who cares if the price of everything goes up, gas costs over $5.00, and thousands of businesses go under.

    I could go on, but it would hardly be worth the effort. Why do people pay attention to this guy?
  • funkedup, on 06/02/2009, -58/+99The unions killed GM and Detroit.
  • Witchdoktor, on 06/02/2009, -8/+45He has some really good points to make but a lot of times he ***** everything up by adding a bunch of absurdly-emotional ***** to an otherwise-sound argument. (See: the end of Bowling for Columbine.)
  • Ghostalker, on 06/02/2009, -4/+38Anyone else notice his site somehow disables the Digg Toolbar?
  • omgwtflawl, on 06/02/2009, -12/+44"The company's body not yet cold, and I find myself filled with -- dare I say it -- joy. It is not the joy of revenge against a corporation that ruined my hometown and brought misery, divorce, alcoholism, homelessness, physical and mental debilitation, and drug addiction to the people I grew up with."

    Amazing! GM "ruined" his hometown, went around making people miserable, kicked down doors and forced unwilling couples into divorcing each other, forced alcohol down people's throats until they were alcoholics, and held people down and injected them with heroin until they were drug addicts. How could a company become this powerful?
  • TheUngod, on 06/02/2009, -1/+32Agreed. It's not his ideas I have a problem with, it's his implementation. He has no problem fudging facts to get his point across, which is totally unnecessary since his points are valid on their own.
  • Swivelstick, on 06/02/2009, -8/+39Then why do the unions and GM work together quite well in other countries outside of the US where the workers have better pay and conditions, yet they still make a profit?
  • dazparkour, on 06/02/2009, -19/+50Easy.

    "He really has many bold but forward thinking ideas".

    Next question.
  • Ghostalker, on 06/02/2009, -16/+45Say what you want about him, Moore still tells it from a middle-American viewpoint. His hometown has been gutted, he's seen friends/families destroyed by corporate greed, and yet he still believes we, as Americans, can correct this. I gotta say that if I were in his shoes... I'd be less than optimistic.
  • smile0my0friend, on 06/02/2009, -8/+36Because other countries have national health care.
  • luftmatraze, on 06/02/2009, -9/+35This should have happened in 2006.
    The nature of free markets is to allow businesses to fail. Consistently the same thing that we see from politicians is to prop up private industries. I find it amazing that when times are good profits are "private" however losses are "public".
    Essentially while America has decried Socialism as being "evil" they still practice a form of corporate socialism.

    I wish all of the families of the workers of GM well and hope to see a new green future built out of the wreck of this post industrial age dinosaur.

    http://streetstyles.ch - Schweiz Band T's
  • TommyGunn32, on 06/02/2009, -0/+26The Javascript..

    if (top.location != self.location) {
    top.location = self.location;
    }

    Kills Digg's iframe the page is loaded in..

    <iframe id="diggiFrame" name="diggiFrame" noresize="noresize" src="SITE" frameborder="0"></iframe>
  • lanemik, on 06/02/2009, -6/+32says the person who didn't read the article.
  • Hrodrik, on 06/02/2009, -10/+35Idiot.
  • Hrodrik, on 06/02/2009, -9/+29You do know that the government is supposed to serve people, don't you?

    Of course, not in the US.
  • lanemik, on 06/02/2009, -2/+21The fact that American workers in general get so much less than other industrialized countries means the unions should be fighting for more. The Brits I know are all so amazed at the miniscule vacation, sick leave, and things like maternity leave. Our quality of life is lower than any other industrialized nation you can name and yet we're told that people are constantly asking for too much.

    It's total nonsense.
  • DankBuddz, on 06/02/2009, -5/+23"He thinks that he has a clue, he doesn't. He lies, cheats, steals, and destroys other people lives so that he can think he knows something that he doesn't."

    No, he educates people on the lying, cheating, cheating and stealing that the US government and big corporations do that clueless people like you continue to promote for some reason.
  • barc0001, on 06/02/2009, -3/+21You're damn right they practiced it. A friend of mine bought a brand-new Sprint from them in 1985. Perfectly fine car that served him well for a few years. Then, about a month after its warranty was up, it was like some self-destruct timer went off, starting with the heater core blowing and antifreeze spraying all over the cabin, followed by transmission trouble, then engine trouble a few months later.
  • inactive, on 06/02/2009, -2/+20If I were one of the workers whose job was sent overseas, I would never buy another GM car. Never. There are alternatives to GM.
  • FordSVT1, on 06/02/2009, -3/+21More like money the company couldn't possibly afford to give them in the long run. You could pay the executives NOTHING and they'd be in the same problem.

    Executive pay is like 0.05% of GM's budget. Get a ***** clue.
  • krahzee, on 06/02/2009, -1/+19"Why does Michael Moore get such a bad rap from conservatives?!?"

    Because as right as he can be at times, he goes and ***** it all up by making himself the focal point. He takes some basic facts, sprinkles in a hearty helping of sensationalism and opinion and then sells the whole thing off as a documentary full of nothing but irrefutable truth.

    While one understands his need to spice up an otherwise boring topics ( I don't care how passionate you are about an issue, most of the country would doze off at the though of an hour plus of mind-numbing fact about the auto industry's economic impact on Detroit), he has crossed the line at times.

    The best documentaries left the topic be the star, not the interviewer.
  • kakwakas, on 06/02/2009, -3/+20Oh, look, another rich person that lives in the middle of a bustling metropolis and can afford living in a city right by his work!
  • inactive, on 06/02/2009, -9/+26That "perspective" is the problem.He can't even realize how much blame the UAW shares..
  • ElChapusero, on 06/02/2009, -4/+21THEY TOOK ERR JURRBS!!
  • DankBuddz, on 06/02/2009, -3/+19We might as well send the jobs to Mexico, right?

    Oh, never mind, GM already did that in the 80s when they were making record profits anyway, FTA.

    But yeah, CEO's are great people.
  • seriypshick, on 06/02/2009, -7/+23I'm a 'conservative' and I agree with this article.
  • DeucesWild, on 06/02/2009, -0/+15I love bullet trains. But comparing the train system in a country that's the size of California to the entire US just doesn't seem fair. We should be working on them though I think.
  • secrity, on 06/02/2009, -2/+17The Ford Focus is a compact, not a sub-compact, and it is quite roomy inside.
  • lindenwold, on 06/02/2009, -2/+17i was wondering the same thing . . .

    i watched roger and me last night after reading this post on moore's blog - had been a while since i'd seen it (kind of scary the parralels - and differences - between then and now with the auto industry)

    anyway, i simply cannot accept the thought that a company laying off a bunch of workers forced these people to dismantle every aspect of their own lives.

    I have been out of work before, and remember times when my father was out of work when i was a child - we were by no means "wealthy"

    but even in the roughest of financial times - i cannot imagine accepting the concept of "giving up". I have lived in some of the ***** ghettos, survived on next to no money, but always asked myself "how bad do you want it?"

    So i don't think the question is "how could a company be so powerful", it seems what we should be asking is "how could people be so weak?"

  • PrometheusBorn, on 06/02/2009, -7/+21a) really? not a tough concept? perhaps if one lives in a city and doesn't drive 30 miles to work, sure, it's easy to say that.
    b) smaller cars help, sure.. but unless you are driving a guzzler SUV/truck, you're probably already getting 28ish mpgs for the average American. Anything better is marginal

    Putting a SUDDEN huge gas burden on people is not a great solution. Give them some forewarning, let it build over many years, so they can start planning around it.
  • inactive, on 06/02/2009, -3/+17The sad historical reality is that humans are stupid, short-sighted, greedy ***** who will sooner consume and obliterate everything before them than compromise one iota.
  • asauterChicago, on 06/02/2009, -3/+17*citation needed*
  • Mudcrutch, on 06/02/2009, -4/+18"To create a railway system that would service the country would take a ridiculous amount of time, money, and effort."

    ^That's the POINT. Take the money the government is throwing at GM and BUILD something useful in the USA, thus employing many citizens for a long time.
  • eternalbuzz, on 06/02/2009, -3/+16While Amtrak may be failing, it cant be compared to what Moore is suggesting. Until we can create a train line that can get a person a significant distance across the country in a reasonable amount of time, we will continue to throw fuel into passenger jets that burn thousands of gallons of gasoline in a single trip.
    I have the utmost faith in the engineering minds of this country. A high speed train cross country isnt a new idea, and clearly isnt impossible.
    Once we can get the ball rolling on an infrastructure change, we can start converting GMs old factories as Moore suggested.
  • dsmx, on 06/02/2009, -2/+15Yeah Britain will just have to make do with 6 months maternity leave, free healthcare, 4 weeks minimum holiday and all those bank holiday mondays.
  • nycjap, on 06/02/2009, -1/+14Why doesn't he use public transportation now?

    I've seen Michael Moore, up close, on a number of occasions, and every time was in the NYC subway system, so it would appear that he *does* use the public transportation system now.
  • ousthouse, on 06/02/2009, -19/+32Here's a crazy idea...

    If you want a more advanced road/train system, then DON'T save the biggest auto manufacturer from killing itself.
  • spookyttws, on 06/02/2009, -6/+19I hate to say it, but I agree with most of what he spoke of. Except that $2 per gallon tax. I agree we need to provide incentives for people to move to alternative means of transportation, but punishing those of us who have regular cars (hell, I'm just trying to get through college) won't help anyone. My Acura gets around 35 miles per gallon and is an Ultra Low Emissions vehicle, I don't drive a hummer.
  • windsorlad111, on 06/02/2009, -3/+16yes, absolute blinkered idiot. what do you think was the greatest innovation that made America and most other industrialized countries great? the train.

    what is the best way to transport freight and people over medium to long distances? yeah baby, the train.

    what do kids love? trains. ***** yeah.
  • funkedup, on 06/02/2009, -7/+20No, you're completely wrong. Proper wages and benefits? They start out at $28 hour and that doesnt incldue their benefits. This includes doing work that a machine could do, and many of the times the workers spend their day watching TV and doing crossword puzzles. Do you know anyone that is a member of the unions? Do you live in Detroit? I actually have a relative who works for GM and is a member of the unions. He has been caught drunk driving over 5 times and the unions (GM) payed for all his court fees and everything. Off course he was given payed time off and everything too. I feel bad for my relative in this case, but a company cannot survive based on things like this.

    The bailouts and government/union control of GM will only make things much worse. If you think GM management was bad then just wait til the government is deciding on the matters. If we didn't bail out Chrystler in the 70's and basically tell the US. auto companies that is okay to not be competitive then we couldn't be in this situation today.

    Yes, we should have let them fail and shouldn't have bailed them out in the first place, but you're diagnosis of the problem could not be further off.
  • MrSparkle666, on 06/02/2009, -5/+18Bingo.

    GM made some very bad decisions, but anyone who doesn't give the UAW it's fair share of the blame in this is being quite blindly one-sided.
  • Eslamicolt3, on 06/02/2009, -15/+27This whole article makes me sick to my stomach in so many ways. It's clear that the man has no grasp on economics, a free market, LOGIC, or any kind of personal freedom. What he is suggesting is essentially complete government control over economy. Transportation effects the entire economic system in the us and abroad, and adding huge taxes and converting our factories would cripple it. One of the most telling lines of logic in this piece is his belief that you can somehow manufacture innovation and excellence. He suggests we convert the failing GM factories and it's workforce into "making the technology of tomorrow!". GM and it's current workforce couldn't manage their own failing, *****-ass car company. What makes you think they're capable of any kind of innovation or excellence in design? Great inventions come from the best minds working for their own rational self-interest. If we were to follow the policy of Michael Moore, and honestly, it really is the road we're traveling down, it will be a long time before America is great again. It will instead continue to be companies like VW, Mercedes Benz, Honda etc. that drive the progress of the world.
  • wigren, on 06/02/2009, -3/+15And if I'm just starting in the work force, can't afford a new, efficient car, and have to commute over 30 rural miles to work?
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