riverman wrote:
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.

Build big, heavy cars if that's what people want *now*, but reduce the
number being built. Also start to focus more on smaller, more efficient
cars (including small "luxury" cars) to compete with the higher-end
imports. The small luxury car market is very profitable. Detroit is a
couple of years behind the curve on this since the market for larger
cars/trucks has held up pretty well until the last 18 months or so.
They don't have to worry as much about long-life as much as five years
ago since they are pretty close to most of the import manufacturers
(except maybe Honda). And if Chrysler could have solved their tranny
problems. (Chrysler is likely to become a badge under GM anyway so that
might help their most pressing reliability issue.)


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.


Don't socialize. Turn the money over to the retirees in an annuity or
lump and get out of the process. Then its a just matter of risk
acceptance and income management.

Don't let the UAW manage pension funds. They'll just skim more off of
the top and raise the costs even higher. They have done enough damage
already.


[snip 8 lines]

--riverman