GM's dangerous game of Jenga

[Frosty]

I found this article particular observant in today's modern, post-banruptcy GM LLC world.

http://www.autonews.com/article/20180226/OEM/180229884/gms-dangerous-game-of-jenga

 

What's truly sad for me is:

A. A number of the North American divisions listed in the article were either headquartered or had assembly plants in my home town of Flint Michigan at one time, and they are all but gone now.

B. I worked at or supported a number of these divisions through out my 28 years working in the auto industry. 

[vwalburn]

How true. The older I get, the more fondly I think back to the automotive powerhouse that Michigan used to be. Woodward Avenue on a Saturday night must have been a sight to see and be a part of.

[Last Indian]

On 3/16/2018 at 11:43 AM, Frosty said:

I found this article particular observant in today's modern, post-banruptcy GM LLC world.

http://www.autonews.com/article/20180226/OEM/180229884/gms-dangerous-game-of-jenga

 

What's truly sad for me is:

A. A number of the North American divisions listed in the article were either headquartered or had assembly plants in my home town of Flint Michigan at one time, and they are all but gone now.

B. I worked at or supported a number of these divisions through out my 28 years working in the auto industry. 

Frosty, I would like to say I feel your pain, but no one can feel another persons pain quite the same! So I’ll say I do know where you are coming from. Unless you’ve been to Detroit where those factories were and seen the devastation and had seen it before that all happened, it’s an arms length feeling. Because of my work with the OEMs, GM & Chrysler, I saw it happen as I would go to Detroit many times over my 39 years to many of the places that are gone now! To have grown up in the hey day of the Muscle car era and have read the stories around it all and to have been in some of those very places was just the best! 
Then to watch the industry self destruct, but in my opinion more accurately, watch Americans sellout their own values to save a few buck while cutting off their own nose is just the hardest thing to watch!
For guys like you and JustA I can’t imagine the heartbreak and emotions! Somehow I hope it works out in the end, but I don’t see how? My own company’s industry is in disarray, as they take a good share of their marching orders from yours.
I find it a little ironic that about a century ago the US had such dynamic industrialist that pushed this county beyond anyone’s expectations and now a century later it’s all coming unglued!

 

Edited March 18, 2018 by Last Indian

[Professur]

Utopia never lasts more than a few generations before it eats itself

[Frosty]

So nature abhors a utopia? Or a utopia simply isn't sustainable?

[Professur]

Creation of a Utopia requires a mentality that living IN a utopia would never engender. A Utopia is everyone agreeing and being happy with established rules .. they're happy with those rules because they know what it's like without them. Grandchildren only see someone telling them what they can't do.



Oh, and it just got worse.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/business/autos/general-motors/2018/03/12/buick-removes-name-vehicles/32870587/

[Frosty]

I know about the Buick thing - there is a thread about it in the Auto News section already.

[Last Indian]

5 hours ago, Professur said:

Utopia never lasts more than a few generations before it eats itself

I don’t really disagree with the utopia analogy, but as a supposed world leader, AKA Empire if you will, nearly all have lasted at least 400 years. The US didn’t start its accent till mid 19th century. So that makes us a flash in the pan? Additionally Most empires are done in by their governments, and while ours may be suspect it’s the inmates that are destroying it, IMO.

[Professur]

Indian ... surely you're not suggesting the US was ever by any definition a Utopia. It's a Republic, where people agree to disagree.

[Frosty]

Why not?  The first recorded Utopian proposal is called Plato's Republic. 

Also, if the US is not a utopia, the why do so many people want to either come here and escape from their own wretched countries or blow us off the face of the earth?

I will grant you that we are nowhere near perfect or ideal by any stretch of the imagination either. I also don't think a perfect utopia/eutopia exists.

Edited March 20, 2018 by Frosty

[Last Indian]

7 hours ago, Professur said:

Indian ... surely you're not suggesting the US was ever by any definition a Utopia. It's a Republic, where people agree to disagree.

 

7 hours ago, Frosty said:

Why not?  The first recorded Utopian proposal is called Plato's Republic. 

Also, if the US is not a utopia, the why do so many people want to either come here and escape from their own wretched countries or blow us off the face of the earth?

I will grant you that we are nowhere near perfect or ideal by any stretch of the imagination either. I also don't think a perfect utopia/eutopia exists.

For about ten minutes! Unless you were an American Indian, and then no! Without getting all biblical the US is a conundrum more than any other as a sovereign state and continues to be evermore increasingly so as time progresses. 
Frosty is correct in his statement to the point of the US popularity for residence, but that only exemplifies the conundrum. 
I still love the US, but part of that is because of specifically where I live, I might feel different if I lived in another area of the country. In my humble opinion the biggest disconnect in the US are the people. Most think they live in a democracy and as a result really don’t have to do anything. While the fact is, as Frosty appropriately pointed out we live in a republic! They aren’t even close in comparison. As an old timer told me a long long time ago, when you point at the government look at the thee fingers pointing back at you, that’s were the fault lies.