"riverman" wrote in message
...
On Nov 19, 3:12 am, "Larry L" wrote:
One of the great things about ROFF is that I can spout off about things I
don't know much about .... and fit right in G

I, personally, don't want to see GM 'bailed out' via my money. Let 'em go
BK and restructure. Their business model is dead ... bury the damn corpse,
don't keep it on a heart lung machine pretending it's still alive

YOMV

If GM and other Detroit Motocompanies don't want to go tits up, I have
a couple of simple suggestions.

1) Build competitive cars. And that doesn't necessarily mean 'build
what people want' because too many Americans want cars that burn a lot
of gas, and that are too heavy and too big to be efficient. Build cars
that are economical and long-lived, like the japs and germans do, and
beat them at their own game.

2) Socialize your retirement plans. Half of this thread is about how
the UAW folks are losing their retirements if the companies go
under...sounds to me like you want protected retirement
accounts...that means socialized. If you want your retirement money to
float on the open market, then you have to accept the potential for
disaster along with the potential for overwhelming growth. Welcome to
the open market...its all fun and games until someone gets an eye put
out.


That's it. But to pump money into a dying business only makes sense if
the business is dying because of lack of capital. GM et al are dying
because people won't buy their cars, and that's mostly because their
cars burn too much gas, wear out too soon, cost too much, and aren't
competitive with imports. The old days of $1 gas, 442 cubic inch
engines and 1 to 60 in 3.2 seconds with double-blown dual racing carbs
on street rods are gone....the days of $5 gas, small efficient engines
and who can get the most out of a drop of gas are here. To stay.

--riverman

GM was selling cars. Lots of cars. Worldwide, they sold more than Toyota.
They sold lots here in the US. They get the same or better mileage than the
equivalent imports. Costs to build are 2x the imports, and they are even
close on quality. These are not the 1970 cars. But that said, let them
reorg in Chapter 11. Management will be ousted, onerous work rules will be
tossed, they will not have to keep paying 12,000 workers for not working
(Job Bank). The Congresswomen from Michigan sounded like she worked for the
companies. Promising the money would be paid back with interest. They have
been bleeding cash for years, how they gonna pay back the money. We, the
people could buy GM for 20% of what they want as a loan. Market
Capitalization is about $1 billion. At least Rep. Issa of Calif is asking
hard questions of the automakers and of Paulson.