The end of General Motors as we know it

And probably the rest of American auto manufacturers and their unions. Is there something special about them, yes. Will I voluntarily pay for it, no.

General Motors (GM) runs a vast retirement and health benefits program that each and every car buyer of GM vehicles helps pay for. For this, GM and like companies Ford and Chrysler and their workers, an American dream is coming to an end. It may not seem fair to those who are affected. They have benefits most countries in the world cannot afford, nor offer. And our ancestors benefited by it, as do many today. But like all benefit programs, it takes money coming in to pay money going out to keep it solvent, balance the books, etc.

And other country’s practices, such as Japan’s, seem so simply unfair to American workers. Their government pays the health care costs and retirement costs, and this does make Japanese built cars more affordable here in America. Maybe we should try make them like us, though it might take another war to do so. And the key word is costs, and there is no free lunch about health care and retirement costs, so the Japanese people are paying. Perhaps that will not go on forever?

Of course, most cars assembled and sold in America today are more international than most people realize. And the quality of what Americans assemble is worthy of note for quality and sales. What is not worthy of note is the quality of our leaders at the business and union levels. At least the Marines go after the officers first when things are screwed up. Why not the rest of America? The recent New York Times debacle about the moveon ad had their ombudsman blame some low level advertisement person for the mistakes. Many prefer the include the leaders approach the Marines use. Maybe the present New York Times company is going down in stock and subscription value for similar reasons to GM?

So let the union at GM strike, which of course they can. Let the GM management pay salaries and bonuses for doing a bad job, which of course they can. Let them collectively end a company. There are many other examples that come to mind. Eastern Airlines and TWA and Pan American are all gone, but we simple public people can still fly. And we can still shop for cars to buy at an affordable price.

Keep politics out of all this, since many business and union leaders will try to induce politicians to preserve their GM type way of life, income, and benefits. Most citizens just want to drive a car at an affordable price in order to go about life’s chores. Politicians might want to pay attention to this constituency, also.

One emotional plea is this … why can’t they work together and compromise to preserve GM and today’s leaders and workers. A second emotional plea is this line. If I were a sophomore girl in college having to drop out because my GM parents can’t pay, I would be rude about the union and the management. I would be willing to work to get through school, even if four years stretched to a longer time. Go think.