GM Dying in the US - GM ups job cuts to 30,000 jobs as it shuts plants, facilities

[Don Palmer]

North America could be on the verge of economic collapse

Am I upset? You betcha!! I have friends in the industry (some of them are you folks here) and it hurts to see friends hurt or fixin' to be. You guys do what you can, but it's the leaders of all the groups that nedd to haved a Louisville Slugger taken to them, not you

And with good reason.

GM and Ford are getting ready to take a dirt nap. And with the rest of the North American sham economy close behind.



Remember, we're all going to be high tech servicemen making a fortune in the globalist borderless paradise and buy all our primary essentials from starving 3rd world corporate slaves. (broken link removed) for all, a second helping for me, please.

In a couple of years, North Americans in the inner cities will be hunting and harvesting one another for food during the winters.

Reason for edit: Added link for those interested

 

[Bill Pflanz]

At the same time there has been the bad news about GM there have also been some references to GM in the obituaries for Peter Drucker. Here are some excerpts from a Washington Post article.

Management Visionary Peter Drucker Dies
By Patricia Sullivan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 12, 2005; Page B06

Mr. Drucker pioneered the idea of privatization and the corporation as a social institution. He coined the terms "knowledge workers" and "management by objectives." His seminal study of General Motors in 1945 introduced the concept of decentralization as a principle of organization, in contrast to the practice of command and control in business.

"There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer," he said 45 years ago. Central to his philosophy was the belief that highly skilled people are an organization's most valuable resource and that a manager's job is to prepare and free people to perform. Good management can bring economic progress and social harmony, he said, adding that "although I believe in the free market, I have serious reservations about capitalism."

It was a typical remark for a man who believed in the empowerment of workers and the futility of big government, which he called "obese, muscle-bound and senile."

Mr. Drucker taught part time at Sarah Lawrence College and then full time at Bennington College in Vermont. After publication of his second book, "The Future of Industrial Man" (1943), General Motors Corp. invited him to study GM's corporate structure. The two-year study put him in close contact with GM's legendary patriarch Alfred P. Sloan.

The book that resulted, "The Concept of the Corporation" (1945), introduced the ideas of decentralizing decision-making and managing for the long-term by setting a series of short-term objectives. It was an immediate bestseller, although GM wasn't pleased initially; Mr. Drucker said he was told that a manager found with a copy would be fired.

Maybe they did find all the copies or fired those who listened.

Bill Pflanz

 

[bmccabe - 2006]

go Randy!!

I would add - Corporate vision ends at the next quartly report.

I would add - Someone mentioned (corporate) survival? Think bigger !

 

[bmccabe - 2006]

Now you've got the picture!

Our country, this world, is at a crossroads.
Change now, or it's a 12 story dry-dive for us all.

 

[Jim Wynne]

In a couple of years, North Americans in the inner cities will be hunting and harvesting one another for food during the winters.

Yes, but other than that, things look pretty rosy

 

[Don Palmer]

Everything's coming up roses, after all the dead are buried

Yes, but other than that, things look pretty rosy

Absolutely, I couldn't agree with you more. What can I say, I'm an optimist.

Here's an interesting blast from the past (of historic value for those that choose to learn from it).

January 21, 1829
To: President Andrew Jackson

The canal system of this country is being threatened by the spread of a new form of transportation know as "railroads" and the federal government must preserve the canals for the following reasons:

If canal boats are supplanted by "railroads," serious unemployment will result. Captains, cooks, drivers, hostlers, repairmen and lick tenders will be left without means of livelihood, not to mention the numerous farmers now employed growing hay for the horses.

Boat builders would suffer and towline, whip and harness makers would be left destitute.

Canal boats are absolutely essential to the defense of the United States. In the event of the expected troubles with England, the Erie Canal would be the only means by which we could ever move the supplies so vital to waging a modern war.

As you may well know, Mr. President, "railroad" carriages are pulled at the enormous speed of 15 miles per hour by "engines" which, in addition to endangering life and limb of passengers, roar and snort their way through the countryside, setting fire to crops, scaring the livestock and frightening women and children. The Almighty certainly never intended that people should travel at such breakneck speed.

Martin Van Buren
Governor of New York

 

[qualeety]

such a pessimism...

it is soooooooo sad to see such pessimism....guess what guys/gals...no matter how bad usa is economically.......everyone else in the world wants to come to usa....so, stop worrying!!!....japan and china have their own set of problems....talking about toyota, honda and other japanese companies....they too will fall, just like gm/ford/chrysler has/willl...you don't have to look far...look at the current generation of japanese....they are more individualistic than their precessors (although they are much much smarter)...it will take awhile but japanese business will become a short-term, profit oriented entity..which means they will become like gm/ford/chrysler...it took gm 40+ years to be where they are...give toyota/honda and others few more decades.....a classic example of japanese company falling off the crest is sony...they were the leading edge of everything...they invented sony walkman, ps2, etc in the past...what they have done recently?....nothing but a major headache with a spyware which they installed in their music cds....so, it is sad to see gm/ford and others fall but am sure they will be other companies that will fill the voids.

 

[Don Palmer]

I remain optimistic till the day I take my own dirt nap

it is soooooooo sad to see such pessimism.....

Ouch, your youthful exuberance has cut my hide. I do however remain optimistic that history repeats itself, and the law of cause and effect remain constant.

 

[Al Rosen]

a classic example of japanese company falling off the crest is sony...they were the leading edge of everything...they invented sony walkman, ps2, etc in the past...what they have done recently?....nothing but a major headache with a spyware which they installed in their music cds....so, it is sad to see gm/ford and others fall but am sure they will be other companies that will fill the voids.

I think that was SONY USA that installed the spyware!

 

[Laura M]

What if they don't layoff 30,000

I'm not sure if this is 'the beginning of the end' or the 'beginning of the future.'
They would be silly to carry the extra capacity. The marketplace is saturated with cars - foreign and US. They've tried to remain optimistic IMHO, but finally are biting the bullet. Meanwhile oil companies continue to lobby for them to keep making gasoline powered cars, and oil companies are making millions. Need to get the fuel cell technology out there. I'm in the middle of Kodak country - they've lost a ton of people in the last 10 years due to reduction of film photographs. But small local shops are picking up the business, including printing, packing and packaging of printer photo paper. My point - cutting overcapacity and restructuring resources is what's needed, not necessarily a sign of an incurable problem. The problem is, having to close facilities, they are going to lose good people as well as dead weight. There is so much dead weight overhead in a company that size - ineffective employees, with no ownership making stupid decisions. And seniority and good old boys rule, not effectiveness.