Regards Pazia.

That 75 dollar number is derived by fuzzy math as follows

Current work wages + current worker benefits + all the costs of retired workers, divided *only* by the number of active workers = 75 dollars.

Retired workers outnumber active something in the order of 2 to 1 or 3 to 1.

At the turn of the century, they relocated their headquarters to Dearborn, Michigan and were either absorbed by or evolved into General Motors Corporation.

In 1970, to be specific, possibly at other times, GM was not only the largest employer of citizens in the United States, but also the entire world.

Source: Guelph Public Library Archives; December 1970.

I'm not sure about the the turn signal 'first', either - Mechanical ones had been around since 1900 or so, and were often integrated into the car body (so presumably were standard equipment). "First all-electric turn signals", maybe?

Cosworth Vega: http://www.cosworthvega.com

Unfortunately, it's next to impossible to fire someone who is in the union.

The management does deserve a large part of the blame, but the union basically acts like a dead weight on the company. When the times are good, like when GM had 40% market share of the automobile market, then having unionized labor wasn't such a big deal. 10% of your labor force didn't bother to show up? Just add an extra pool of labor.

But when times are bad, well... you see what happens to GM. The legacy cost alone is enough to hobble the company in the marketplace. Add on top of that the inflexibility and absenteeism.

The union is doing its job: it's trying to secure the best deal possible for its workers, but they're doing that at the expense of the company's well-being. Ultimately, both the fat cat management and the union will drive GM into oblivion.

I think you are right. I never felt more oppressed than when I had to go in for emergency surgery.

My self-employed father also felt the sting of the government jackboot when he required specialized neurosurgery.

We'd have been much better off without coverage or paying a private insurer.

Truth is: when it comes to our 'socialized' medical program, I pay my taxes with pride.

Nic M.

Why is it that acting as a collective to get the best deal is so beyond the pale for you and your like minded fellows?

If you go to buy a washing machine, your leverage on the price is slight to none. If you and 30 friends all go to buy 30 washing machines your leverage on the price is a hell of a lot better.

Now if everyone puts a little bit into the socialised medecine pot then they have a lot of buying power, a lot more than if you attempt to buy health care individually.

You see you and yours are actually making the price of health care higher by allowing the insurance companies to divide and concquer.

Sorry but the insular me first and f*ck everyone else attitude does you no favours, divides you and your fellow citizens and makes insurance comapnies rich.

You don't want your taxes to go up? Push for socialised medecine,it is cheaper.

It is also the morally right thing to do.

Tom H, that is ridiculous. I have had no say in how GM runs the company. Big cars have nothing to do with GM's fortunes, poor decisions between management and unions are the biggest faults.

These executives are scum, sucking every last dime for their personal benefit from what was once a cash cow, but now is a starving, broken-down, over the hill nag. Bonuses used to be paid based on performance; these guys should be paying the companies to keep them employed.

@zav - you're right, obviously. It's corrected now.

"The first factory electronic fuel injection, a true multi-point system, with dual 2-bbl. throttles, was optional on 1958 Chrysler products, both Hemi and wedge engines. It was jointly engineered by Chrysler and Bendix."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_injection#History_and_development

The interesting effect of that choice is that, in those countries, the auto makers don't pay for their employees' medical costs. In the USA, one of GM's largest extra costs is company-financed medical costs. With tax-funded medical care, GM might be more competitive.

The moral: socialism is good for business.

Alejo

It is managements fault.

They failed to manage.

That is why they get paid the fat money, not to whine and bitch and blame the employees.

If you are management...MANAGE THE COMPANY.

If you don't like the Unions then manage the situation, make them see that absenteeism will result in firings.
Manage your product, if you are trying to sell a car you do not get to blame the guy with the wrench putting wheels on all day, he didn't design it, nor did he do the consumer research nor the market place forecasting.

It is managements fault, they failed to manage any aspect of their business and awarded themselves a series of unearned and grossly out od scale pay increases.

That is incorrect. The word, "Faults" should be "Fault". You will never hear fault being used with an s on the end when applying blame in English unless someone is referring to earthquake faults. In short, there is never an s on the fault when applying blame. It is her fault. It was their fault. You can, however, say that someone has their many faults.

This isn't actually true ($75/hr would be $167,000 yearly gross salary!)

See here: http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=1026e955-541c-4aa6-bcf2-56df c3323682

I think I think the executive salaries ought to be capped at something like 3X the line workers salaries – bonuses included.

Source: http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=1026e955-541c-4aa6-bcf2-56df c3323682

and

http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/market-movers/2008/11/18/the-retu rn-of-the-70-per-hour-meme