Detroit: Begging For Help

i find it very interesting that it took a man like Deming to go to Japan and help them rebuild after WWII. Now it looks like we could use someone from Japan with a similar vision to come over and help Detroit rebuild.

If GM difficulty could provide any lesson for the whole macro-economy; it would be a lesson of humility. Once it was the largest auto company; now it is on the verge of bankrupcy and overtaken by a company once was not even ranked second. It is all because of complacency, lack of vision, and low adaptability.
The same situation occurs in many other arenas. There are more than 19 millions vacant forclosed properties; enough to fill the whole population of Canada. And who can guess how we adapt? More restricted travelling and immigration are among those adaptations.
If GM difficulty could provide any lesson for the whole macro-economy; massive investor-class travelling and immigration should be encouraged. It is probably the quickest way to turn this massive problem around and turn weakness into strength. If we have a nice but empty house and money wants to come in; we do not close the door; and ask what color it is or where it comes from. We just need to open the door.

lets go back to the basics just chevy,ford ,dodge and *** can everything else

goverment please dont give them any more money they will suck u dry they dont have a plan to bail them selve out but to take everyone else down with them for 1 thing the cost of a new veclile is to *** high they look nice and they are but priced to high vechiles should only be priced half of what they are and then get ride of the ripe off auto dealerships

I have been in the Auto Business for over 30 years-and I have seen bad times, but never anything like this!!I have been out of work since October and havent been able to find a job because the news media is beating this to death. Nothing has really changed in the last 30 years except for the cost of a new car and relative incomes, but we have apparently gotten to a point where the media and government now control our sales. Boo Hoo...anyone has a job for me email me at skinion2004@yahoo.com.Thanks

The only idea that appeals to me is a CEO working for $1 a year. Libertarian capitalism has got to go!

I like my Saturns. You prefer profit by vulture capitalism to hardworking people or retirees with a decent pension, preserving small business and serving the used car market's continued need for cheap gas. All you do is write for a living and we can live without the stagnant ideas you propose; ideas that got us into this deep recession in the first place.

You GM CEO's sabotaged yourselves when you sabotaged the promising EV-1 electric cars, not just by torpedoing its market lure, but by cloaking, and then selling to Big Oil control of the advanced battery technology that should have debuted with the EV-1. You conspired with Big Oil and Bush to quash the CA clean-air mandate for a quota of electric cars per auto maker. You ripped away the EV-1's from their lessees just so that you could attempt to re-write history, to contend that these excellent vehicles represented a failed attempt at introducing electric cars to the public, and could keep the public at large uninformed of their true significance and desirability. You were the Pied-Piper for all other auto-makers engaged in similar innovations to follow suit. You CRUSHED and GROUND the EV-1's. Now you have the unmitigated gall to ask of the American Public, "What will WE do?" and "Collapse is imminent if we do nothing."? You've ALREADY accomplished "NOTHING", neither for yourselves, for your labor force, for your future or the future of our economy. You sealed your fate when you conspired against consumers economically and environmentally. And then you slap us in the face with the Chevy Volt, a vehicle that represents your continued effort to keep consumers tethered to BIG OIL. The truth of what you did will continue to spread and the Chevy Volt will BUST. Rick Wagoner, you and Bush should be raked over coals and then convicted for FRAUD. BRING BACK THE PURE ELECTRIC CAR!!!

I say,let the big 3 fail. America can not afford to bail out every-mismanaged company. This has been long time in coming and now that it is here, they are looking for a hand-out, Don't WE THE PEOPLE have any-thing to say, where are tax dollars go. I say let then eat cake.

This guy is nothing but a spin doctor trying to get cash for a business that will eventually fail. The goverment said so themselves earlier this fall that stimulus packages tend not to work in the long run. Why is this any different? Simply because they are singing the blues and being open about their problems? This isn't convincing me at all that they deserve a windfall of the bailout package. If anything, it's making me think they DESERVE to fail for such blatant mismanagement of funds. 7.7 billion in three months?? And we're considering giving them MORE money? You've got to be kidding me!

Ii think now is the time for Detroit "leadership" to own up to their failures and take the pain. They have had over 30 years to get their house order and have allowed the foreign manufacturers to outsmart, outdesign and out market them. As painful as it may be they should have consolidated or restructured years ago. Meanwhile, Mr. Wagoner and the so called management has continued to vote themselves unearned compensation increases. Now they want the American taxpayer to give them more. The best I have heard from GM on a "get-well-plan" is a $40K Electric wagon called a Volt which, today, no one can probably afford. Toyota and Honda have already outflanked them.

Chapter 11 is the best solution, to releave them from Unions, as avia carriers did. Bancruptcy does not mean liquidation, most of the workers will not lose their jobs. Like americans did not stop buying tickets of those bancrupt companies, they will not stop buying bancrupts GM and Ford cars if they are cheaper than Toyota. Bailing them out only postpons inavitable - Detroit still will be unprofitable with current Unions contracts, and will crash and burn in 2013.

It appears that the US government is reluctant to bailout GM, the complete meltdown of which seems imminent.

With whatever little left, the Treasury simply cannot afford to keep bailing out failed industries or entrepreneurs. GM bankruptcy would mean the loss of jobs by hundreds of thousand. And this is absolutely worrying yet scary.

Dow dips further to near the 8000 level, causing great concerns to the world markets. One would suppose things can only get real worse in 2009 ??? nothing to be euphoric about.
(Tan Boon Tee)

I blame the unions from keeping the big autocompanies from really competing on a national and global scale. The unions helped to create these "job banks program." The program pays employees not to work.
In a recent CBS report:

A beneficiary of that program was someone named Jerry Mellon, who worked for GM until his division merged with another in 2000 and he was no longer needed. Except for a brief period in 2001, Mellon received his full salary for not working, which reached $64,500 a year by 2006. Include benefits, and the annual cost to GM exceeds $100,000. To earn his pay, Mellon was given the formidable task of showing up in a windowless shed, sitting at a table, and doing nothing for eight hours a day for six years, according to a profile in the Wall Street Journal. Jobs Bank employees have the option of attending classes teaching such important manufacturing skills as dealing blackjack and poker. Mellon spent part of his time reading Reader's Digest, learning how to play Trivial Pursuit, napping on a makeshift bed of chairs pushed together, or simply staring at the wall for hours at a time. The United Auto Workers union and Detroit executives concocted the Jobs Bank idea in the early 1980s. Now these same economic whizzes are lobbying for handouts in the form of your tax dollars. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said in a statement last week that the Feds must "provide liquidity to auto manufacturers so they can get through the difficulties caused by an across-the-board decline in auto sales." Not quite. Detroit's problems aren't caused by a one-time slump. They can't be fixed by another infusion of cash. One cause is that union labor and legacy costs are too high and make the so-called Big Three companies uncompetitive. Another is that their profitability is tied to large, heavy trucks and SUVs that Americans no longer want to buy, at least in such large numbers.

Dear Could care less.

I f you think "local boy" Obama is a Socialist for wanting a bailout of 25-50 Billion Dollars in lending to the Auto industry, with possible millions of jobs at stake.... Try this kind of REPUBLICAN SOCIALISM ...... 2 TRILLION DOLLARS, ON TOP OF THE 700 BILLION DOLLARS ORIGINAL BAIL OUT TO THE BANKING SECTOR. Yes pal, while you complain about Obama's "Socialism" , your party is taking you, and all your Kool-Aid "Conservative Capitalists" out for a SUCKER RIDE.

Turns out that the Bush Administration in the middle of the night produced another 2 Trillion on UNDISCLOSED loans to the banking sector, and passed an unauthorized tax brake worth 150 Billion more to your "FRENCH SOCIALIST" BANKERS (But proud Republican Fiscal Conservatives-Free Market believers) AT WALL STREET.

But you are worried about "socialist" Obama!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pal you are as disigenuos as the Joe "the idiot" Plumber. Dear Republicans Kool-Aid drinkers, I hate to brake it to you, but WE ARE NOW LIVING IN A SOCIALIST - CAPITALIST SOCIETY ..... Courtesy of your beloved President Bush, and the policies YOU REPUBLICANS supported for 8 years.

Obama is HINHERITING A SOCIALIST GOVERNMENT or where do you think all the 3 TRILLION DOLLARS AND COUNTING is comming from?????? The only difference is the "socialist" part is us the taxpayers helping the Wallstreet fat cats recover their losses.... How is that for wealth redistribution pal???? I am sure you an Joe the Plumber will approve of your tax payers Dollars going to help fat cats get their bounuses in time for Christmas, but no money for the Autoworkers that can actually PRODUCE something.

Or how do you think America will be strong again? By PRODUCING Credit Derivatives designed by Wallstreet sharks, and hustlers and exporting them to the world? or by actually producing some REAL TANGIBLE PRODUCTS that people around the world want to buy from us?Republicans... You never learn.

The auto industry just happens to be crying for cash as their local boy obama will be able to give them all they want. As if 2010 will be any better for them to pay it back to the taxpayers, lol. This is why you keep hearing socialism. The people with money are paying tax and they are using it to pay the bills for everything that is wrong now. Don`t forget GM also got heavy into mortgages. The reason they will give them what they want is all those pensions etc... You pay thousands extra for a car just because someone worked for 20-30 years just like everyone else. Now we pay for their welfare checks and medicare... They should get rid of the unions, government retirements, etc. etc. and fend for themselves like everyone else...

I`ll never buy an American car. The next step will be cost cutting which will make them even worse cars than they already are. Maybe Ford can slap in some of those non-metallic brake caliper pistons again to save a few bucks. It`s always fun going down the highway and your brakes freeze because they melted! NEVER AGAIN!

What happens when the bailout is given and the same overpaid CEOs and upper management run th ecompany right back into the ground?

I feel bad for the employees at risk of losing jobs, but giving money to these under performing companies and watching them waste it will not help.

I