GM: Lutz watch

the environmental costs are the same whether there is a tax or not.

 

Last I looked the military thing was kinda big. Other costs include the disdain of the world, the acceleration of peak oil, the extra road maintenance of all these guzzlers, the environmental cost (emissions and climate change), the safety cost of having so many guzzlers on the roads... Just off the cuff.

 

Um, only if the tax fails to discourage consumption...

 

We are already busted. New gasoline taxes can be implemented over time to reflect these other costs without excessive shock to the system, letting us build a sustainable growth economy, rather than boom/bust/repeat.

Plus we can save money by not giving another dime to GM & Chrysler, then Lutz can see how underpaid he really is.

 

We are busted I agree, but it is not from cheap energy. this country is broke because Wall Street decided they could make huge short-term profits by exporting the middle class. Now we are trying to provide a safety net for all of those without jobs or with a job paying 1/2 as much.

 

Agreed (that it did not come from cheap energy). The bust came from somewhat expensive energy in 2008. The middle class went away as a result of the closed-shop union laws.

 

You don't really believe that do you about the middle class.

 

No. Really they just flew south for the open-shop jobs.

 

Far more jobs have flown east over the last generation or two than have flown south.

 

Darn free markets. You should wall in the good area and keep those jobs at home.

 

Atta boy malorn . . . defend the zombie dinosaur corporate leadership to the bitter end. It's hard to hope the best for GM and their PHEV / EV turn around, when GM continues to dig it's own grave. Nice try.


You forgot ... the Prius was recently rated the NUMBER ONE selling car in Japan. But then you wouldn't want to mention that, as it shows the direction that is slowly but certainly taking place. Even as the world evolves to accomodate dwindling fossel fuel, GM fights it to the bitter end. Will GM ever be able to change from the disgusting company, convicted decades ago of buying up all the trolly lines so they could destroy them, & replace them with their smog belching / fuel wasting buses? It's hard to imagine. In fact, GM's skuzzy management almost turns me off to the Volt ... even though I purpose to buy the 1st affordable PHEV or EV that hits the market. GM's corporate leadership is why I hope the Leaf hits the market first.

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Trolly lines... wasn't that during the 1930's? I don't imagine you want to look back at what Toyota was doing to the US in the 1930's. I guess Toyota gets a free pass from you on that.
Give me an answer Hill, on the record, when will hybrids reach 5% of the US market, when will they reach 10% and then tell me how if you were in charge of a major auto company you would deal with that.

You can hardly compare the Prius in Japan to the Prius in the US. They have been driving tiny cars over their from the beginning. in 2009 1.2 priuses were sold in the US out of every 100 cars and trucks sold....and you and I both know the Prius is the only hybrid that sells.

 

Oh, that's right ... GM's crimes from the 1930's 40's and 50's don't count. Even though the corporate leadership still acts the same. Japanese in the 1930's were doing what the U.S.A. taught them to do ... "Imperialize" ... remember? Like what we did when we over-ran native american cultures ... and Hawaiian cultures ... and when we 'took-over Samoa' ... and the Philippians ... and ... well you get the point ... we figured WE were alowed to do it ... but didn't like it when we taught other countries that THIS is the road to success. Nice try at obfuscation.
Give you an answer? Like when you predicted gas prices NOT rising? Does it make any more difference than when airline ridership went up? How do you figure GM's leadership is better/and NOT misdirected ... if it takes more time for hybrids to hit a certain percentage ... without the help of GM?

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We would have been much better off with that policy over the last 35 years. Every time we sign a 'free-trade' agreement the trade and the jobs seem to flow one way and one-way only.

 

so the Japanese attacking every country in the Pacific was the fault of the US and therefore GM too? Geesh!
On gas prices, what did you pay per gallon the last time you filled up. I am not quoting you specifically but two years ago there was alot of chatter on here that gas prices were going to $10.00/gallon, I said no way. Was I right or were they right?
I didn't say GM's leadership is better, but they Whitacre is decisive, something that GM sorely lacked for the last 40 years. Alternative fuels and electricity are certainly part of the GM plan going forward but the main part in the last 5-10 years, that would be foolish.

 

As long as the wall excludes me and mine, build away. The protected economy will collapse quickly since goods cost more to make than they are worth, but go right ahead.

I would rather we invested in education and kept competing, before another generation of workers learns to build FSPs the old fashioned way.

 

I'm just saying WE set the ground rules for how to take over cultures ... and honest folks already know that. Whiteacre / sorely lacked / past 40 years? please explain.

 

30 mpg highway, that's the plan...

 

Collapse quickly? Cost of goods will be more than they are worth? How about collapse because nobody has a good job and can afford the good?

compete? Compete with industries that are underwritten or wholy owned by foreign governments? Tell me, which industry do we have left here inthe US?

 

For years, GM operated like the federal government. Slow and unresponsive and was very slow to change and improve. You may dislike Lutz, but even 20 years ago, his attitude and opinions would have been eliminated quickly.

Whitacre has embraced Lutz and is very impatient. The Toyota debacle has given GM just what it needed, a reason for people to test-drive its product. Could not have been better timed, maybe it is a conspriacy? ......Just kidding.