Thursday May 24, 2012

JAPAN NEWS AND DISCUSSION

GM board meets as bondholder deadline passes

Business May. 31, 2009 - 06:25AM JST ( 9 )

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9 Comments

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cow76May. 31, 2009 - 11:47AM JST

Why is GM bankrupt while Toyota is only suffering minor losses and looks very good long term? 20 years ago GM decided to focus on big cars and Toyota went for small cars. Now nobody can afford a gas-guzzler and the Prius is selling like hotcakes. Still, at least GM tried.
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SargeMay. 31, 2009 - 11:51AM JST

GM also has to pay for health care costing $1,500 per car more than Toyota.
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cow76May. 31, 2009 - 12:09PM JST

So a public health care system is good for car companies? Yes, it's good for a lot of things.
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Patrick SmashMay. 31, 2009 - 01:27PM JST

Sarge has it actually. A lot of Japanese companies succeed on contract workers and unpaid overtime. This should fall under the category of unfair competition, but it doesn't. Not the only reason, but it's a biggie.
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bonymMay. 31, 2009 - 01:34PM JST

"Why is GM bankrupt while Toyota is only suffering minor losses and looks very good long term"

Because, at least according to court rulings, Toyota employees will work for free ! No matter what GM or Chrysler may do... you can't compete with Japanese nationals who will stay at work 14-15 hours a day, much of it undocumented. Sarge points out a $1,500 dollar diff for health care, sounds like a red herring to me. If Toyota actually paid its employees for the thousands of hours of free overtime ? Game over ! GM is still in business. Wake up America, the Japanese are attacking your way of life.
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mareo2May. 31, 2009 - 02:00PM JST

Is true that a no unionized workforce cut costs. But even then, the quality of the cars dont improved so much for make a difference. The unions is an important factor, but not the only one on the problem. Now, the question is: You are going to make the other automakers get unionized and lose in price to imported cars? Or get the benefits of americans auto workers on the big three for save the jobs?
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HopflyMay. 31, 2009 - 09:07PM JST

Auto workers are the best paid unskilled labor force in the US.
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bonymMay. 31, 2009 - 09:49PM JST

Hopfly, actually I thought flight attendants were ! I for one have no qualms about their right to earn as much as they can, that's never been the problem with GM. GM has been a fortune 500 company for decades and the number one producer of autos in the world for more than 70 years. Their downfall is due to too much foreign competition, many of which engages in illegal activities like unpaid overtime, dumping (anyone else up-to-date on the Toyota Prius battery scandal thats unfolding), and blocked access to other country's markets... most notably Japan and Korea ! I encourage GM workers to take their frustrations out with full scale picketing of every Japanese or Korean auto maker in the US. Shut down those operations, turn them over to American auto makers, then settle in for "managed trade" with such nations.