Originally posted by aAandHt:
And just watch the economy crumble.
You do realise GM has a big part of the US economy on its back...
If they went out of business overnight, the economy would take a huge hit, but I doubt it would be that much larger than we have seen in the past 25 years due to natural cycles.
IMO, the problems of the american car companies isn't just one source there are several including:
High labor costs - Due to unionized labor and all the retirees the ford and GM (GM moreso) are paying out tons of money. This leads to less competative products. Do you really think the engineers of foreign car companies are that much better? I don't. But when you have to compensate for higher costs elsewhere (labor and overhead) they get cut eleswhere (r&d and materials). I am sure we could make a car that could easily beat the japanese competition but it would end up costing more
No nationalistic buying habbits - In our capitalist society people often buy what is the best, or the cheapest.... If you look at europe what do they largely drive? European cars. Sure they have GM and Ford over there, but those divisions act as if they are autonomus (sp). The japanese largely drive japanese. Should we blindly buy a product even though it might be inferior, to support our own economy? I don't know, the costs/benefits to the society are very debateable.
More streamlined supply chain - Do some research on Toyota's supply chain (they are the best example) and then GM. There is another abyss of money and resources. I should note that even among the japanese companies, toyota holds a clear advantage.
"Bros before Hoes" <-- More men need this mentality.
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