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Originally Posted by Gatorubet
The shortsighted Detroit CEOs who got our whore congressmen to gut the increased mpg mandates for decades are to blame as well. If they had transitioned to high mpg and hybrid vehicles like they were supposed to, they would be more competitive now.
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Indeed. How dare we allow consumers to drive the market? They'll buy what the Government says they should buy and like it, dammit. And if they don't, we'll limit oil supplies and make it too expensive for them to disobey us any longer.
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They took the short term SUV cash cows over the long term welfare of the company.
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They sold the public what they wanted. Had they not been selling they wouldn't have been producing them.
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You cannot blame all of that on unions. Slave labor is not the freaking answer either.
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There's a big difference between $30+ an hour and full benefits, not to mention years of "jobs banks" paying people to do nothing, and "slave labor".
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Spending money on factory modernization instead of big dividends is an idea too.
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That's right! [censored] the investors! Why should they get anything for buying stock in the companies?
By the way, when they spent money on modernization in the 80s the unions threatened to strike if they laid anyone off, hence the "jobs banks" were born.
The automakers spent too much money - on management and labor. They need to reduce their costs. They could start by not flying to DC on private jets to ask for billions. Talk about tone deaf!