Is what is good for General Motors good for the United States?

that was originally said in 1953....is it still true today?
Keep in mind GM is slated for bankrupcy......
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and keep in mind the USA is also slated for national bankrupcy.....national debt-wise

General Motors contributes 1% to the entire US Gross National Product - 1% and one company.

One out of every 67 people in the US receive health care benefits from GM (huge retiree base).

Toyota recalled more vehicles than they produced this year (true fact that you can verify).

GM may be down, but it's not out. 100,000 Fuel Cell vehicles by 2010 (Toyota had to cut back on their launch dates because they don't have enough engineers to do the job).

Hey California - wanna fuel cell car? Check out the GM dealers in a few short years!! Beats the snot out of the "hybrids", which still rely on fossil fuels.

First, you need to understand that traditional definitions of "American" and "Japanese" made cars are no longer correct. ALL Japanese car companies have manufacturing plants in the United States and use some American parts--because, in the 1990's, the United States increased tarrifs on import cars shipped in from overseas, so it became cheaper to assemble them here, at the point of sale. In addition, American car companies have all outsourced their labor to Canada and Mexico, which has far cheaper labor rates, and they don't have to pay tarrifs to ship the cars back into the United States once they are assembled. So, Japanese brand cars are actually more "American" than American brand cars. That wasn't the case 20 years ago, BUT IT IS THE CASE NOW. Also, Japanese comanies are traded on American stock markets, so the idea that only the Japanese profit from Japanese car sales is faulty--many American investors profit from the sale of Japanese cars.

Now, why are Japanese cars more reliable? Simple, really. From the very first mass produced American car (the Model T) through the late 1970's, American cars reigned supreme in the United States. There was simply no competition to speak of. But, during the gas crunch of the early 80's, Japanese cars came on the scene and sold enormous amounts of cars, to the shock and surprise of the spoiled American auto-makers. The Japanese had been focusing on efficiency, gas mileage, and quality for many years, while American cars were floundering and lagging far behind. By the time the American auto-makers realized they had to innovate to be competitive again, they were already at a huge disadvantage. Slowly but surely, American auto-makers are catching up, narrowing the gap, but they still haven't completely compensated for that sluggish period in the 1980's when Japanese cars were far and away the better option.

GM dug its own grave by ignoring the national interest in improved vehicle economy and basing its core business strategy on huge gas guzzlers. Let 'em die.

I'm concerned about the workers but couldn't give a rats *** about the management.

Yes, indeed. But what is good for GM is fiscal responsibility, trimming overhead, etc. instead of borrowing and giving the money to stockholders. There was a Yahoo financial news article a few weeks ago about this very question, and you could see the guy's point that GM and the US need to do the very same kinds of things.
GM is in a lot more trouble than is generally known, and general knee-jerk boosterism is not an apt reply to concerns about that.

Hmm. Maybe we had better hitch our wagon to another star

General Motors, and Ford, will be the next American companies to be take over by foreign companies.

Remember - just 10 years ago- we heard about the "Big Three"

Ford - GM - Chrysler.

Chrysler is a German company now. GM will soon be merged with Toytota.

Ford is melting into a foreign company -- probably Mazda.

What is good for America is to partner with Seimans, Daimler, Hyundai, Nissan, The twenty-first century will make America into america (with a small "a".)

According to Labor Unions they are good for GM and the US. I can't think of one thing that could be worse!!!

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