[PRCo] Re: Gazzz

[hwandrews at wowway.com]

John - yea, GM is in deep crap.  They need to reduce their capacity to match 
their market share - Ford will be doing the same in January.

The saber rattling on Bankruptcy I believe is just that...  saber rattling 
to get the UAW to work with the company on down sizing.

Today if Ford or GM wants to close a plant the UAW has to agree to it.  And, 
even then the workers go in to the 'job bank' where they get to collect 
close to 90% of their take home pay for, I think, up to 2 years. Hum...  
real cost savings huh!  

Howard


On Mon, 21 Nov 2005 09:35:13 -0500, John Swindler wrote
> I see that GM is slashing 30,000 jobs, and there is talk of filing 
> for bankruptcy.  What was that 'old sayin' again, Jim???
> 
> John
> 
> >From: "James B. Holland" <PRCoPCC at P-R-Co.com>
> >Reply-To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> >To: pittsburgh-railways at dementia.org
> >Subject: [PRCo] Re: Gazzz
> >Date: Sun, 20 Nov 2005 20:09:03 -0800
> >
> >The Old Sayin' used to be:
> >
> >
> >"""As GM goes, So Goes The Country"""
> >
> >
> >Very Interesting Observations, Bill!!
> >
> >
> >While the Investing World is watching High-Tech companies and the future
> >seems to be centered around computers, Autos Still Drive The Economy, to
> >use a phrase.       The Big  *-D-*  *-may-*  be in the process  --  I
> >hope I am wrong but History Does Repeat.       GM and USA auto industry
> >have slid some already in the past couple decades compared to Japanese
> >autos and appear poised to slide much further    ----    some see the
> >possibility of GM filing bankruptcy!!!       Can't happen today(??)
> >----    over simplistic, but this is definitely one of the reasons it
> >can!       Hope I am wrong but I believe we are just seeing the tip of
> >the iceberg on the downside.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >Bill Robb wrote:
> >.
> >
> > > There may be a fundamental change in the economy occurring. We have
> > > seen high gas prices for two summers in a row. It's been caused by
> > > somewhat uncontrollable factors. Auto makers are faced with suppliers
> > > going bankrupt. Last time something like this happened was when many
> > > of the manufacturing jobs disappeared in the late 80s and early 90s.
> > > It'll be interesting to see what happens to gas prices next summer
> > >
> > > Not too long ago I was in a local cafe and one of most prominent local
> > > car dealers was there. He was very publicly telling another business
> > > man that business is much harder than it used to be. Cars last longer
> > > (usually about seven years), people keep their cars longer and the
> > > auto companies don't even seem to make money making cars any longer.
> > > GM makes more money on financing than auto sales. As gas prices kill
> > > SUV and truck sales and the huge SUV profits disappear it can only get
> > > worse.
> > >
> > > I recently read an article suggesting the reason that trolleys
> > > disappeared from the scene was that they did not have the profit
> > > potential that autos, road building, gas refineries, auto insurance,
> > > and hospitality facilities brought to the economy. Macro economics
> > > killed the trolleys. The car culture provided more employment and
> > > wealth creation opportunities than the efficient networks of trolleys.
> > >
> > > Now the car culture that supports much of the economy could be on life
> > > support.
> > >
> > > Bill Robb
> > >
> > >
> > >> Fred Schneider wrote:
> > >> .
> > >>
> > >>> .......Suggested solutions are to tax people by the miles they drive
> > >>> instead of the gasoline consumed, start a campaign to get people to
> > >>> drive more and to discourage the use of mass transit.
> > >>
> >
> >
> >
> >Jim__Holland
> >
> >
> >I__Like__Ike.......And__PCCs!!
> >
> >down with pantographs ---- UP___WITH___TROLLEYPOLES!!!!!!!
> >
> >


Thanks,
Howard Andrews