Long-time TTAC readers may be familiar with my old friend Rodney, the Billy Dee Williams lookalike with whom I sold cars, raced bicycles, rode motorcycles, and generally raised some sort of mild hell from 1995 until the present day. (If you’re not, here’s a field guide to his eccentric accomplishments.)
Over the course of the past week, Rodney’s had two life-changing things happen. The first was that he got his driver’s license back from the rural Ohio court which has held it hostage against a fairly large sum of fines and penalties since 2010. The story of how he lost his license involves everything from a Nissan Stanza jumping train tracks at 60 mph to the “black bull and white cuck” scene, and it’s a story I’ll tell once all the statutes of limitations expire.
The second is that Rodney’s mother, who is in her late sixties, was just conned into leasing a Buick Encore.
She and Rodney live together and they take turns driving her ’99 Regal up to Cleveland to help Rodney’s grandmother. They can’t go at the same time because if they leave their apartment unoccupied for the weekend, the Somali refugees who make up 90 percent of their neighborhood will break in and strip the place to the walls. Or so they believe, anyway, mostly because they’ve seen it done to other people a half-dozen times. So it was Rodney’s turn to watch the apartment when the Regal broke down on his mom, somewhere north of Akron. She had it towed to the Buick dealer. They didn’t have much Regal inventory. But they had plenty of Encores.
“And that is how,” Rodney seethed to me as he and my son split a breadstick at the Donatos down the street, “those bitch-ass marks at the Buick store pretty much bent my momma over the sales manager’s desk and raped her by working her for three stacks at the stroke ($3,000 down) and $299 plus-plus (plus tax and title) on this funky-ass thing that looks just like a retarded Chevy Trax! I cannot agree with this purchase decision! And, quiet is kept, you know they wouldn’t have had the courage to even mention that downstroke if I’d been there! Ain’t no way, cuz. Not now, not never.”
“You’re like an ancient Nubian warrior when it comes to negotiating a down payment,” was my response.
“On either side of the table. Customer or salesman. You better remember that. Because I held gross on a lot of marks. And sorry for saying ‘bitch-ass’ in front of your son. Don’t listen to your Uncle Rodney, John.”
“I’m not,” John responded.
“You just said it again, though,” I clarified.
“Said what?” Rodney asked.
“You know. ‘Bitch-ass’.” I replied.
“Well, you’re saying it now, too. I wonder, honestly, if he doesn’t get a little corrupted from listening to you say shit like that. Oh. Sorry for saying ‘shit’, John. Don’t listen to your Uncle Rodney.”
“I’m not,” John responded for a second time.
In dealership parlance, Rodney’s mother got “moved”. She “came in on a Regal” but “landed on an Encore”. Now, while I realize that in the world of TTAC everybody comes into the dealer already settled on everything from option packages to final transaction price, in the real world this type of thing happens e-v-e-r-y day. If you’ve ever walked out of a Lowe’s with a sales receipt for a different washer and dryer than you’d originally intended to purchase, you should have a good idea about how people like Rodney’s mother approach buying a car.
It’s also why the fawning article about Chinese Buicks in the Freep misses the point completely.
“The Envision doesn’t compete with other Buicks,” it sagely states. But that’s a lie. Once it’s on the showroom floor, it will be direct competition for other Buicks. My history as a dealership employee tells me that very few new cars have such superstar status that they drag traffic in all by themselves. Each new Mustang does it. The early Ford Explorers did it. The PT Cruiser did it. But most of the time, people who visit a dealership are really just looking at a brand based on their experience with, or preconceived notions regarding, some of its products.
The Freep says, regarding Chinese Buicks, that I need to “get used to it”. Jalopnik told me Monday morning that I needed to “deal with it”. Frankly, I’m surprised nobody has yet told me to “move on” regarding Chinese-built Buicks. Moving on, I have come to realize, is a form of privilege that is given to the chosen ones in our society. When Mr. Clinton (for whom I voted, by the way) got caught perjuring himself, George Soros paid a couple million dollars convincing us that we should “move on” instead of punishing him for it. That’s privilege in full effect, right there. Mrs. Clinton is currently suggesting the “move on” treatment regarding the classified emails on her private server, and no wonder; she was there when the tactic was perfected.
But this isn’t a Democrat or Republican thing. It’s a power thing. When you can tell people to move on or deal with it, you have power. If the CEO of the company where you work defrauds the company of millions of dollars, he’ll probably have the chance to move on, keep the money, and keep his career rolling. If you are caught on video loading your co-worker’s computer into the trunk of your car, you’re going to move on to jail. When a rich kid kills four people, he pleads “Affluenza” and goes to rehab. If you’re a black woman with an unpaid traffic ticket, you might wind up dead.
In other words, the power to “move on”, the power to tell your detractors to “deal with it”, is quite a bit of power indeed. Which makes me wonder how, exactly, General Motors got so powerful that they could take a taxpayer bailout, invest the money into Chinese production facilities, start importing cars from China to the United States because they supposedly don’t have enough factory space here to make building the Envision here worthwhile, and just expect that everybody will deal with it. Keep in mind, we’re not talking about “Old GM” here. I grew up in the shadow of Old GM, that majestic ziggurat that crushed the dreams of John Z. Delorean and frequently sold more than half of the cars on the road. The arrogance and blind narcissism of that enterprise have passed into legend, but at least they earned that arrogance by succeeding beyond Alfred Sloan’s wildest dreams.
No, this is “New GM”, the British Leyland of our era; the government-resurrected zombie that rose from the grave with very few obligations and plenty of working capital and carte blanche to do what it liked. Speaking truthfully, I will admit that I supported the “bailout” from the moment it became clear that something would need to be done. I didn’t care about the political aspect of it. I cared about the idea that hundreds of thousands of children might go hungry if their parents lost their jobs. I also pointed out at the time that nearly every major automaker in the world receives some special consideration from its home government. Why should GM be any different, even if the scope of that assistance was considerable?
So I cheered as GM got the help it needed. What did it do with that help? Well, it agreed to build the Cruze in Ohio. And it gave the UAW some concessions — while also, it must be said, receiving some. Then it turned its attention to China, announcing plans to build multiple factories in the country. True, GM has spent something like $11 billion on U.S. manufacturing since the bailout — but the investment in China is larger, and faster, and more wide-ranging. The Stateside money is to modernize facilities and catch up on maintenance, but the China money is building production capacity.
If you want to look at it in an inflammatory fashion, try this: GM was a major part of the “Arsenal Of Democracy” in World War II. But they’re building an “Arsenal of Market-Based Communo-Capitalism” for the Chinese now.
So what was the point of the bailout if, in the long run, it just hastens the day that China becomes the default manufacturer of automobiles the way they now are for everything from laptops to cheap dress shoes? Had GM been permitted to collapse, wouldn’t Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and other manufacturers have responded by drastically stepping-up their North American production plans? You can say whatever you like about the Ryder Report and about British Leyland, but they did keep the jobs in the UK until the whole enterprise was broken up for spare parts.
I know I should “get over it”. I should “get over” the fact that the first volume distribution of Chinese automobiles in this country will be by the hands of a corporate-welfare recipient reanimated with American tax dollars. (Or, if you want to be picky, Chinese money loaned to America in expectation of future tax receipts.) When the next Chinese car arrives, and the one after that, I’ll be told to “deal with it.” When the majority of cars sold in this country come from China, I’ll be told to “calm down” about it. When even Honda and Toyota close their American facilities because car manufacturing has become the classic race to the bottom, I’ll be told that the Chinese cars are “just as good” as their predecessors.
The jobs will disappear, a thousand at a time or a million at a time. The service jobs, too, will disappear, replaced by automation and intelligent systems. We will enter the era of the white favela on a national basis, using government handouts to pay for whatever shiny new Chinese or Indian item we can get cheaply enough, living hand-to-mouth. The average income in Fairfax County, Virginia will stay the same but everybody else will know the true meaning of suffering.
I have friends who say they are going to “go to the Amish” when it all happens. “They don’t need civilization,” is what they say.
“And they don’t need you, either,” is always my reply. As for me and my house — well, I think we’ll go to Rodney. To the $400/month apartment where women stay inside for their own safety and the children play in an upstairs bedroom. To the polyglot of foreign tongues, strange dress, and prayers from another book entirely. Or at least that’s what I “envision”, isn’t it?
You mean my Buick WASN’T built in China?
HEEYYOOOOO!
LENNY: [Homer and Flanders are entering the football stadium parking lot. Not wanting to be seen with Flanders, Homer pushes him down in his seat, making it look like the car is driving itself] Hey look, Homer’s got one of those robot cars.
[seconds later, Flanders crashes]
CARL: One of those *American* robot cars
Orion Township is not China. Well, not yet. I cannot vouch for how much of your Verano was actually assembled there vs assembled in China or other places before arriving at Orion Assembly.
Very soon it will be the whole Verano.
I think your Verano was put together out back or something. Glad to see it is still in the stable. I’m still enjoying then ecu tune coming up on 30K miles and sees 30 mpg on my shortened 8 mile commute with half highway, half city. Gas mileage drops when we tow the 1,000 jetski to the dock but it has no problems pulling it in and out of the water. The Verano 2.0T continues 37 mpg at 70 mph for 6 hours at a time.
If the Envision rides like our rental Enclave but has the torquey 2.0T then I’m game. Even my Verano has better around town NVH than our ’14 XTS VSport.
Not only will it compete with other Buicks, but it will compete with it’s future platform mate, the GMC Terrain, AT THE SAME STORE.
GMC is now Oldsmobile (except Denali, that’s roughly Buick level).
I feel like Olds and Buick had more than a little overlap.
…and don’t forget Pontiac.
Wow, this was a dark, dark tale. However, not entirely unbelievable.
andyinatl,
In Australia GM did consider importing a Chinese made Buick as the replacement Commodore when GM’s manufacturing winds down here.
We are getting a German made Opel.
I do think that GM’s management is aware and sensitive to consumer demand and expectations.
Eventually Chinese made vehicles will flood the global market, there is nothing we can do about this. I would suspect that the majority of motor vehicles are purchased as you would buy a fridge. If the fridge can hold enough beer keeping it cold with enough room for food then it’s a good fridge. My fridge is made in Korea and I really don’t care.
Many who buy a car look at repayments, does it fit my requirements and how much bling does it come with for the price. Look at the standard of most who drive vehicles, they wouldn’t know under from over steer or in some instances they are driving on half flat tyres.
Most cars are appliances, if they weren’t most would not sell, look at a Yaris, Focus or Corolla. Fridges.
Suggestion: If and when you’re on a Buick dealer’s lot and happen upon one of these Chinese Buicks, open every door, hatch, hood etc. and SLAM THE LIVING SHIT OUT OF IT. Put some muscle into it. It won’t surprise me what all might break. My wife slammed the drivers door on my brand new 1980 Dodge Mirada and the passenger side rear window shattered. She later shattered the rear window glass the same way. All sorts of screws fell out of that car. The door card retainers all broke. And every so often you would park it overnight, move it the next morning and a huge nut and washer or large bolt would be laying under it and you couldn’t figure out where it came from.
And yet, I suspect that 1980 MOPAR quality control was several notches above what Buicks made in China are today.
Is your wife a bodybuilder? Or like, Chuck Norris?
Chuck Norris doesn’t break cars, the cars break for fear of Chuck Norris.
When Chuck Norris drives his Buick, the car doesn’t move over the earth, the earth moves under his car.
Chuck Norris would kick the earth’s equator, thereby changing the speed of its rotation, and any Buick plants GM thought it was building in China would actually be built in the U.S.
Also, that kick would bend the space-time continuum, and all taxpayer-sourced dollars supplied to Guangzhou Motors would flow backwards from GM’s account to those of hundreds of millions of Americans.
youtube.com/watch?v=SI_Nq5u84bI
Merry Christmas from Chuck Norris
Fantastic. Thank you for that.
Jack’s vision in accurate except he leaves out the inevitable civil strife which will accompany the growth of the State and the downfall of the nation.
Yes, like in the UK and Canada…
Rodney’s mom ends up with a great vehicle for seniors and Jack reinforces his awesomeness by parading a colorful urban playmate.
*warm glow*
“reinforces his awesomeness by parading a colorful urban playmate”
This was my impression as well. And what is with that bull/cuck stuff?
I like you Jack, but you may have officially gone off the deep end.
Black bull/white cuck…you have to complete the phrase, read between the lines, and compute that aerialing over a train track comes after the first part, and because of it. And then you know why Rodney ended up in deep doo-doo for years. This is mere conjecture, but highly plausible.
Hope it was worth it Rodney, and if it wasn’t, I feel you. We all risk too much for too little at some point in our lives.
An addendum to this: my wife had a friend in the state she lived in when I met her who had been dating a retired military dude, officer grade, for a few years. The guy had spent almost his entire career doing some menial task above the Arctic circle for all but a handful of weeks. Close to twenty years of that. Reason? Seems he had been caught having an affair with the wife of a much higher ranking officer early in his career.
After he retired from the military, he became a “financial adviser”, with get rich quick schemes for every taste. Still slamming and scamming, it seems.
My wife, being a tax accountant at the time I met her, was wise enough to see that the things were just barely shy of Ponzi schemes at best. Unfortunately, her friend, a midlevel phone company exec with a fat 401K was not as smart or as suspicious. She flushed a good bit of money down his ratholes before she finally flushed him.
But my point is that having gotten caught dipping his pen into the company ink, he was put between a rock and a hard place for a long time.
So for those who are slow to catch on to Jack’s allusion, if Rodney = black bull, cuck is short for cuckold, a man whose wife cheats on him, and white cuck = the judge who had the black bull by the cojones, it could easily explain how Rodney’s license might have been used to inflict retribution on him.
And given his highly unorthodox but highly effective sales techniques, it seems quite likely that Rodney was made to suffer for his success with the female sex, at least as it played out in that jurisdiction.
All of this is nothing more than speculation on my part, so if I have missed the mark by a mile, Rodney please forgive me, I meant no harm. I was simply trying to drop a little science on a few people who may have failed to recognize that the widespread white fear of black sexuality is still alive and well, err…, still alive and still sick might be a better way to put it, above the Mason-Dixon line as well as below it. With attendant consequences perhaps less harsh than historically but still quite vindictive nevertheless. Glad you got your license back, man.
The way Jack describes Rodney’s prowess, talents, whatever you want to call it, he was/is a walking testimonial to a 2Live Crew lifestyle. And in a small town with a wife of a judge you appear in front of, that would be an easy way to get blindsided, and hosed for years with the DMV. As seems to have happened to Rodney.
Elsewhere on this site someone recently wrote that he was told by his father that criminal court was where the poor got screwed by the system, and civil court was where the middle class got screwed by the system. Anyone who wants to argue otherwise is free to try, but I remain unconvinced. And I suspect that with Rodney, I could get a witness…
In what year will TTAC figure out that Buick is a Chinese brand that just happens to sell cars and crossovers in the US to fill out the GMC product line?
Mark: get the picture right – that minivan isn’t the Envision!
I put the photo in there, not Mark. It’s the old China-only minivan.
Have you ever sat in that Buick? I have, and while it’s a classic land yacht and not my cup of tea, it’s not terrible (and actually very quiet). I’ve owned a Buick and a Chevy in the late 90’s, and they drove me away from GM cars forever. That Buick, while I will never pay my own money for it, is vastly superior to those two I owned in the past, and I’d have to say, about an average value compared to others on the market.
Ah, so that’s why it looks like a Chinese knock-off.
If this were any other company it wouldn’t be an issue. See Volvo. Because it is GM anything they do or say is automatically due to the bailout or government motors etc. Never mind that we give out billions to foreign aide every year and bailed out the crooks at Fanni Mae/Freddie Mac to the tune of 187 billion over time but loaning GM money so that millions of jobs weren’t lost is such a horrible thing ya know! And Chrysler had two bailouts but is never ever talked about in the way GM is.
GM is the one building cars in China. That doesn’t sound like “American jobs” to me. It sounds like the tax money spent to preserve GM as a fine purveyor of “American jobs” isn’t doing much in that regard. THAT’S why people speak badly about GM. Give back to the people who kept you going by giving them jobs and decent products, not by moving toward a “made in China” sticker.
I like(d) GM vehicles. Buick was ok, but started to decline in the late 90’s. I still have an Oldsmobile. I used to have a Riviera. Make decent products, make jobs HERE, and no one will say you didn’t deserve to be saved.
@Ponchoman49: I’m with you bud. The former EIC here always insisted that GM would be the first import cars to North America from China. Too bad Honda beat them to it.
The US Government has supported and/or bailed out a myriad of US corporations over the years but, you know, GM = Evil. Maybe because I live in the industrial Midwest I see the huge amount of investment going into GM plants (it’s not just for maintenance).
I’m old enough to remember the Reagan Recession of the early 1980’s, when all of the heavy industries around the Great Lakes were shutting down. I can remember seeing men in their 50’s delivering newspapers as a way of keeping the lights on. Please tell me that the economy would have been better with another 5% of GDP sunk; and that the other car companies would have “filled the gaps”. With that many people out of work there would have been no *need* for the other car companies to fill the gap, no one was going to buy a new car.
I’m also old enough to remember when this blog had content worth following. This site has about fallen off my list. It may drop off completely soon.
They *should* have branded Buick here as Pontiac, and added the Firebird. As it is now, Dodge fills the niche Pontiac once did, and should.
But that’s just my opinion.
I wouldn’t buy a Buick if it was assembled by NASA rocket scientists.
Which is really too bad. My 1988 Buick Electra T-Type sedan, despite its flaws, was one of the best cars that I have ever owned (and I have had about 11 Hondas so far). Buick City put out cars with very good build quality and they got a lot of awards for it. My 2001 Lesabre (still own, but a bunch of stuff is broken on it now so it sits waiting for me to fix it) is far worse than my 1988 Buick when it comes to component quality – the assembly quality was still very good however.
I drive Hondas and an old VW Passat TDi now (Passat is uber-crappy car, but it is loads of fun to drive when something isn’t falling off of it and it also gets 50mpg). We all need a hobby.
I won’t ever buy another Buick either. Unless it’s a cream-puff 1980s RWD B-Body Lesabre or Park Avenue in pristine condition, white with blue velour interior, drool . . .
Because if it was assembled by NASA rocket scientists, the oil pan gasket would have been fabricated out of surplus O-ring material, no doubt.
What the hell did I just read? This feels like one giant Buickman comment.
I’ll just have to echo the Detroit Free Press when I say “Get used to it”.
cute.
Spot On Jack. Great piece of work!
“Had GM been permitted to collapse, wouldn’t Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and other manufacturers have responded by drastically stepping-up their North American production plans? ”
And that is precisely why I was, am and will be against the BAILOUT of GM. The idea that the industry would have collapsed because a rotten carcass of Old GM finally collapsed was a horrendous lie.
No that’s not how it would have worked. It just shows how most anti-bailout people don’t understand the basic economics of the situation.
jhott –
I wasn’t a proponent of the bailouts either, but the economic havoc that an uncontrolled GM bankruptcy would have been disastrous. Ultimately regulators were faced with a few ugly scenarios: uncontrolled bankruptcy, which would have had massive ripple effects; controlled bankruptcy and liquidation; controlled bankruptcy and reorganization. Controlled BK with liquidation would again, be messy and destructive. Looking at the options on the table, all of them costly in some form or another, I would have gone with the BK and reorg as well.
jhott997,
If GM collapsed I would of thought the brands would of been broken down sold off to the highest bidder.
In the short term the bailout made sense, but in the longer term and for the better of a nation GM should of been left to die a just death.
Breaking up the brands and selling them wouldn’t necessarily be a problem if the entire financial market weren’t already in a death spiral. “Breaking up the company” of that size and magnitude cleanly was going to be nearly impossible without throwing hundreds of thousands of workers out of jobs, even if it were only temporary. Add in the incredible legal entanglements that would have ensued for any number of thousands of reasons and it adds up to a big bag of bad.
It’s no wonder the financial and political world took the course they did, even if logically and philosophically it made no sense to me.
What all those who fear trade forget is that if the US doesn’t produce something it won’t have anything to trade with the Chinese for these Buicks.
Economies will change, automation will replace muscle, and just like when the tractor replaced human labor on the farm, people will fear change.
And, don’t forget, since comparative advantage is based on a giant pile of Ricardo’s assumptions, including that people do not migrate, and they do:
Americans will be like Geordies and Latin Americans and Southerners in the last century; the children will be economic refugees, headed to those distant places where things are still made and they can get a job, and they will speak other languages and adopt other ways, and they will forget your ways and your culture.
Kudos for mentioning Geordies. I live among the US equivalent, utter industrial abandonment of huge swaths of the surrounding states. Not only are kids of the former working class hosed but those with once highly employable degrees now must scour the globe for jobs.
My best bud’s son has passed the bar in three states here but had to settle in Saipan for a living salary.
We’ll do like the English when China didn’t want anything they produced – we will sell them Afghan heroin or blow them up.
Eloquent and powerful, JB.
This is railing at symptoms, not underlying causes.
GM is not alone in this. Not by a long shot. Our friends on the right will rail against “the growth of government” and miss the point. It’s not the *size* of government that matters, it’s a question of whose interests it serves. When laws are written by lobbyists, corporation shop governments and states for the best tax deals, unlimited money flows into campaigns (and, ultimately, back into the pockets of the donors since they, in essence, own the media) and the highest court in the land rules that GE, for example, and I, as a citizen, have equal standing under the law, is there any question what is wrong?
To quote Phil Manzanera, “Why complain when your wine is sour when you let a liar choose the brew he pours you?”. I blame both the right and the left. The right who swallowed hook, line and sinker, the whole “business is good, no matter what” line and the left for thinking that its possible to negotiate with absolute power.
We have let the thieving class run amok. That some of us are smart and quick enough to grab a few crumbs and live a decent life does not change the fact that now, more than in over a century, the few control the destiny of the many.
+ 10,000 .
-Nate
About the only comment here I can go along with. Well said.
So-called globalization is a construct of the supremely wealthy, bolstered by think-tanks issuing propaganda that homogenizes brains at home into thinking their way.
If you lived in a small country, you’d have already seen the life sucked out of it by manufacturers abandoning the place for cheaper labor abroad, despite governments ponying up minor grants and inducements to stay that merely accrue to general revenue – giveaways in fact. The pols won’t have to spend their dotage in poverty but are “remembered” for being on-side.
Let’s have free-trade pacts say the ultra-privileged, yeah, that’s the ticket! And the bought-and-paid for financial writers repeat it a thousand times over: it’ll be good for you. The drones battle on sucking it up, the politicians get Board appointments for carrying the profit crusade forward disguised as societal progress.
Well, the exigencies of ever-increasing quarterly profits have finally reached the point where US companies operating overseas have to do the same to the home team. Using US trademarked products. Splat. The horror.
Now you know what you’re really worth, just like the rest of us already do. We got squashed first, that’s all.
The people who have not figured this out yet resort to thinly disgised racism: I’m not buying a furrin car made overseas despite it being nominally American. Pause. Beats chest.
Just because it’s Chinese. If it were made in Europe, Japan or South Korea as so many are, well that’s all right. Mexico, well maybe, if I have to. These people are on our side, whatever that truly is.
The really rich have trained you well, but the bottom line is what counts. Too bad their past propaganda no longer applies. Even now, intellectual scribblers are typing away at think tanks, dreaming up yet another philosophy to explain the situation away. Why not? It worked in the past.
Couldn’t you have somehow worked “lickspittle” in there if you’re going to rant like Klaus Kinski in…wait for it… Drzhivago?
I was hoping for a running dog lackey of the capitalist oppressors myself.
Or perhaps Klaus Kinski in…Aguirre, the Wrath of God.
That was a rant.
But if you really want to see Klaus Kinski launch into orbit, google Jesus Christus Erloser.
Unmatched by any performance.
Well put.
Speaking as someone in the dextrosphere on most issues, many on the right don’t think about the difference between being pro business and pro free markets, or alternatively, being in favor of the idea of capitalism and commerce in general and favoring specific businesses or industries. Businesses are just as fallible as any human institution.
I supported the idea of the bailout because I didn’t want to see the Detroit area devastated, but more importantly, the failure of GM and to a lesser extent Chrysler would have seriously harmed America’s manufacturing capabilities because of how it would have affected companies and people in the supply chain. I wasn’t happy, though, with how either Pres. Bush or Pres. Obama ended up implementing the bailout. Corners were cut, people got screwed.
Bondholders especially.
Buying junk bonds doesn’t always work out well.
Nope. That’s a fair point. They should have got out after the rating agencies dropped GM’s ratings in 2006.
Well, the bondholders certainly didn’t get screwed, they just made a bad investment.
And as I will note here yet again, GM’s secureds were paid off at par, which is to say that they were fully repaid. Surely nobody here thinks that those bondholders should have been paid more than they were owed?
Right, it was the unsecured bondholders that were offered the 1 for 100 deal, or whatever it was.
Bunkie,
Irrespective of what we like or don’t like in how issue are managed we must remember a simple phrase that was told to us when we were taught to be managers. This phrase can actually be used prior to any decision being made, ie, your comment.
The phrase went like this “Remember areas of influence and areas of concern”. Only concentrate on influence. It seems we spend much time in areas of concern.
Throughout history humans have been guided and directed by a social pecking order. There as those who can and those who can’t. We are then can’t. If we want to be part of the can then we must position ourselves to be able to influence.
We all maximise our positions of influence in our lives from family to work. The thieving class do the same and most of us would also do the same to protect ourselves and our interests.
In the end this is called competition. Concentrate on influence and you will be more successful.
I fear for capitalism. I describe myself as a classic liberal: a firm believer in markets and competition with the power of government applied to ensure fair dealings in said markets wherever and whenever possible.
As for those who “can” and those who “can’t”, I do agree. However there’s a difference between “can” being defined as legalizing theft and producing something of value. Government should apply itself to preventing the former and promoting the latter. That maximizes the positive effect of the “can” types.
Best comment today, anywhere.
We had our one chance to let GM die and we collectively blew it. Never forget.
Interesting prose by JB. It’s probably not a popular opinion here (or much of anywhere for that matter), but I’ve come to believe consumerism is just another metaphorical noose we can choose to hang ourselves with.
A state sponsored, defacto religion of consumerism (especially consumption of frivolous, unproductive & even counter-productive junk) is the rope;
The debt required to fuel such consumption is the end portion of the rope used to fashion the noose that people & business entities ultimately use to hang themselves.
Who do you want to blame for all this? GM for being greedy, the UAW for being greedy, or the customers for being cheap?
That’s easy, except:
1. Shareholders want to maximize their ROI, and so GM is called ‘greedy’.
2. The UAW’s greed has some legal protections which slows – but doesn’t stop – the export of jobs.
3. No customer ever boasts about paying more.
I’m too upset that someone copied the Odysseys ugly side windows to be upset about the state of the country.
Ahh hah hah hah! Good to know that I’m not the only one who thought the same thing when I saw that picture.
Personally, I think that the latest generation of Odysseys look like a hearse, when viewed from the side. Especially when painted black. Add a stick-on Landau bar on that rear quarter glass and some gilded mortuary name lettering on the window, done!
I’m not too upset about Buick importing cars, any more than I’m upset about any manufacturer importing a model from anywhere if it’s not expected to sell much in the US.
I feel that if the Encore had been expected to sell as well as it did, there would be a decent probability it would have been made here (or at least NA) from the start.
Nearly all of the GM investment in China has gone into plants producing cars for Chinese consumption; I don’t think that’s anything to get excited about.
Agreed. Especially when China is the world’s largest auto market, where GM’s prior investment is small. Meanwhile, GM sales are down from their peak here in the US, where their existing investment is obviously much larger.
Gotta agree with Sir wired on this, Jack did you bitch and moan when the regal was built in Germany,This just seems like your bashing GM for something 90% of auto companies do, hell maybe the Japanese Jack feels Honda never should have setup a factory where your accord came from as I am sure Japan Inc gave Honda cash over the years. Would you be happy if the Buick was made in Mexico, Canada, Thailand, or Europe?
I just read the first paragraph, and said to myself, “Self, this is gonna be *gooood*”
Now, back to reading the rest of the article.
Chinese Buicks – most people won’t care, and you can always vote with your wallet.
Apologies to everyone below – the comments are getting scrambled on this page, and I don’t know how mine ended up here.
What’s a Nubian?
Princess Amidala and the Gungans?
You’re closer than you think. It was Queen Amidala (yes, electing a queen at 14 years old is one of the worst forms of government), and the people from the planet Naboo are just called “the Naboo,” but Nubian was the make of the chrome spaceships they all flew around in. Nubia is a planet in the Nubus system on the outer edge of the Core Worlds.
The Force is strong with this padawan.
And on a side note, just how low WAS Padme’s IQ? Not only did she let herself get swept off her feet with the infamous “I don’t like sand” line, she bought that from Mr. Future Darth Vader (which was not-so-subtly hinted at by the wholesale slaughter of an entire village of sandpeople). And to add insult to injury, she actually let herself get knocked up by him too. C’mon, girl…try some self respect!
Wow, we went down a slightly different nerd path than I had intended: https://youtu.be/vHLJfxfXHBg
Natalie Portman is a good actor and Hayden Christensen is an average actor; both were hindered by terrible, terrible writing. They didn’t fall in love in Ep. II so much as they got dropped into it by the script.
I feel like a lot of details between Anakin and Padme’s romance weren’t even shown on-screen. Like maybe Padme was humoring Anakin for a while but then ended up actually falling for him, and then when the war started, she felt like the thing she and Anakin had going on was the only thing in her control. She probably had some hopes that her presence would be some kind of moderating effect on Anakin’s dark side, and when that didn’t work, she went off the pill for a few weeks in the hopes that a child would do the same.
I hate Episode II and I think we should bury it in the sand like all of those ET Atari games. The writing is so terrible. He is a whiney b!tch the whole movie, and then Padme is all of a sudden like, “I love you.” What the crap is that? And then it takes Obi Wan and Anakin to take on Saruman with a lightsaber. And old man Sith takes them to school anyway? George Lucas made even Christopher Lee look bad. No wonder why Disney told him to take his ideas back to Skywalker Ranch with his big sack o money.
Christensen makes every Star Wars film he’s in awful but terrible dialogue aside I thought Attack of the Clones was better than The Phantom Plot Point.
Well, Phantom Menance ruins the whole d@mn thing by explaining The Force. No one needed an explanation, we were all just going along with it. The rest is terrible too. It would have been better if Liam Neeson just played his character from Taken or Batman Begins’ Ra’s al Ghul.
He would have needed a time machine to channel those excellent performances.
Well if George Lucas can remove the original Anakin Skywalker in ROTJ, then he can do this too…
He should have played the role like he was still Darkman.
“Take the F’n elephant!”
A Nubian is a dairy goat. Well maybe some other things also (like some people in Egypt) but making sense doesn’t seem to be a prerequisite to commenting.
I assumed it was a fancy way of saying that “Rodney” is a black guy. That’s what it used to mean. I don’t understand all the sci-fi gobbledegook below.
Before Lucas expropriated the word Nubian for his meandering money machine, Nubians were an African tribe of great size, power and nobility.
Don’t people read Nat Geo’s while growing up any more? Or do they all just look at the pictures now, and skip the reading of captions, much less the articles?
I did thoroughly enjoy driving my cousin’s Toledo-built murdered-out Wrangler Unlimited around the outskirts of Canton—that puppy really benefits from the Pentastar.
But it wasn’t just the driving experience (which, as a lifetime Civic/Accord user, was definiely different); it was the fact that every time I saw another Wrangler, there was a wave and/or a honk.
Driving a Wrangler in the state in which it was made (which is also the state in which my Mom was made) made me feel a lot prouder than I thought I would.
I don’t get that from my Canadian Civic.
I imagine that’s more a Wrangler thing than much of anything to do with where it was built. Civics are built in Ohio as well, and people driving by can’t see your VIN, can they?
Civics come from Indiana, but Accords and some Acuras come out of Ohio.
Turns out they *were* built in Ohio instead of *are* – Wikipedia claims the 4th through 8th gens were partially built in East Liberty. Almost 25 years isn’t bad, even if it was interspersed with a number of other sources.
Also, I’ve been in Alliston, ON, driving a Civic built there, and I don’t think anyone ever waved at me.
When my wife had a Wrangler (here in NC), we referred to the little nod and two-finger salute off the steering wheel as being in “the Jeep Club”.
China Car salute:
Spit out window!
That’s the farmer wave. We give that to anyone driving a BOF vehicle in a rural area.
So I will add an anecdotal tale from a different industry.
Purchased the last piece in a nice set of bedroom furniture two years ago, all American solid cherry wood and made in USA. My wife is paying an an older man (70’s) asks me why we bought it. Turns out, he owns the store. We talked awhile and he showed me the “Home and Gardens” branded set nearby, just about 10% cheaper and all Chinese. Looks just as nice on the outside, and will last about 7-8 years. He said my grandchildren would easily be able to use the set I purchased. But nobody cares, because everything now is disposable, so the American furniture manufacturers are dying.
He thanked me and I left feeling pretty good about our choice. Soon car buyers will need to make the same decisions.
I think many buyers would purchase a more solidly made product if they we’re truly sure of what they were getting. The problem comes when you don’t really know, so you default to spending less.
Making educated choices is important especially when buying high dollar merchandise.
I think this is spot-on. One of my hobbies is woodworking. There was an end-of-book essay in one of the magazines a bunch of years back about a woodworker critiquing the products in an upscale furniture store. Until you know the proper way to do things, the shortcuts aren’t all that visible. Best example: rather than matching component pieces for grain and color, pieces are given final topcoats that are tinted to hide color variations. This obscures the grain (and allows for some awful grain juxtapositions) but since people are more concerned with color, they don’t see it.
At least you’re all full of sunshine and light this week!
In all the vitriol, the following are lost:
1) Cars have LONG been disposable. There are junkyard full of cars that have been disposed of. This isn’t anything new.
2) How many manufacturers have foreign AND domestic plants? Answer: all of them.
3) It’s not like this Chinese Buick has a niche all to itself and will sell regardless – it’s in one of the most hotly contended segments in all of the industry. There are plenty of competitors to choose from here. If it sucks, it ain’t gonna sell no matter where it’s built. Ask Subaru what happens when you introduce a midsize CUV that no one wants to buy.
4) It’s up to consumers to declare they’re going to buy American and reject this car, but honestly…given that they refused to do so when the cars were coming from Britain, Japan, Germany, Korea, Mexico and other countries, are they really going to make their stand on this car? I doubt it.
Amen!
+1
Very well put
Edit: I would like to add though, that back in the day, Americans did give their loyalty to the domestics, in the 70’s and 80’s. But the domestics squandered it by phoning it in, stockpiled cash and profits, while building cars of inferior design and quality to the global competition (I know, it’s a vast generalization, but in general, true). They would not have declined if they had leadership that insisted on going the extra mile and providing the market with class leading cars.
In attempt to be argumentative….
Question 2. My answer to your question which you inaccurately answered…Morgan. Sells all over the world. Builds them in Malvern England. By hand.
Back to reality, I agree with your premise. Of the manufacturers that matter to the global economy or even the US economy, they have factories all over the world.
Because China ain’t Britain, Japan, Germany, Korea, or Mexico.
I’m pretty sure there are more than a few people (myself included) who wouldn’t buy this or any car manufactured in China on principle alone. But I’m equally sure the vast majority of people looking at a vehicle which happens to be Chinese-made will be as clueless about its origins as they are about how to change the oil in it or how much horsepower it has.
Exactly
This article is eye opening and makes me even more scared of chinese products based on words from their own CEO’s.
http://www.marketplace.org/2015/12/10/world/why-cant-china-make-good-ballpoint-pen
You voted for Clinton, supported the bailout, and you’re bent out of shape about the reality of global social justice? It is as much your fault as anyone’s. Clinton opened the door while Hillary’s friends on the Wal-Mart board shipped manufacturing to China. He also gave them our best military technology for campaign contributions so small he’d squander them bribing his rape victims today.
All policies with even stronger support on the right. What’s your point?
My point? You and Jack will get what you deserve. I’m not grateful for getting swept up in your lemming migration.
I didn’t just vote for the guy, I campaigned for him.
Not something I’d do again, but I’m not going to lie and say I didn’t.
You misunderstand me. I’m no fan of these policies. You would know that if you read what I’ve written. My point is that there’s lots of blame to go around. The real question is this: can we see past the failure of *all* of our elected officials to find common ground on what to do about said failure?
100% spot-on, bunkie. We’ve been sold out all around. It’s past time to stop voting based on who has a (D) or (R) after their name and wanting our “team” to win, and start voting based on who is truly going to work in the best interests of their constituents and their state/country.
I’m going with Kodos next time.
“So what was the point of the bailout if, in the long run, it just hastens the day that China becomes the default manufacturer of automobiles the way they now are for everything from laptops to cheap dress shoes?”
GM was bailed out in order to prevent a depression. Even if most of the jobs had been cut, it still would have been bailed out. Even if there had been no union, it still would have been bailed out. Maintaining auto industry employment was gravy, not the primary motivation.
In the wake of the Fed allowing Lehman to collapse, which the markets took as a sign that the US was asleep at the wheel, the failure of GM would have been a sign that the cancer was growing beyond the banking sector and that the Chief Surgeon of the World Uncle Sam was unwilling to operate. That would have sent the capital markets into a complete tailspin and resulted in a depression that would have probably been much worse than the 30s. Nobody wanted to see what would happen when all of the credit default swaps on GM imploded and revealed that there was probably little or nothing to back them up across the entire financial system.
In retrospect, Ben Bernanke should have just held his nose and bailed out Lehman, and I suspect that he realized that mistake fairly quickly. The cost of not bailing out Lehman would prove to be much higher.
This is hogwash at worst…theory at best.
Ditto for the Wall Street bailout.
Nobody goes to jail.
People get hosed.
All bull crap.
And in truth…the so called depression save is still to be seen. Trillions in debt and cans kicked down the road do not mean you did anything that special…you just took from others. Future generations are now holding the fee for these jobs.
And even IF you are correct…nobody responsible got jailed.
Just like today…take responsibility and let others take the hit.
Nobody involved with the regulatory changes brought about by the leaders in banking.
Nobody went to jail for the home loan bubble.
Nobody went to jail in the big banks for poor and disingenuous lending practices.
Nobody went to jail for running down GM and Chrysler.
Taxpayers got hosed.
I’m not exactly shocked that trailer trash wouldn’t understand the post.
I don’t know how you would make it more simple. GM bailout bad, but GM collapse badder. How about that?
For those who have turned perpetual animosity into a lifestyle choice, I don’t think that would be enough.
To be fair to Bernanke, he is on record as saying that Lehman’s problem was so extensive that it couldn’t have been bailed out. If you believe that, then Lehman would have failed anyway, so bailing out GM was a done deal once the equity markets realized how bad things were.
“perpetual animosity”
I can’t help but chuckle at the unintended humor there.
You confuse mockery with anger, which is the sort of thing to be expected from one who isn’t smart enough to understand these things.
Taxpayers got value for the money given for the bailout. Govt inaction after the Lehman collapse, which itself caused a temporary seizing up of credit markets essential to normal business operations, would have resulted in a long term failure of those essential credit markets while everyone with liquid assets pulled back to avoid getting caught up in cascading failures. That’s your depression save.
Taxpayers, and all citizens, did get hosed by the failure to do anything to prevent it from happening again. No one went to jail because most of what was done was avaricious and stupid, but it wasn’t technically illegal, and it still isn’t.
Twice you mocked those who expressed disagreement with your idiotic and naive understanding of not only what caused the auto industry failure, but the belief that it was the correct thing to do and that it was successful.
Pure dumbness.
The amount spent and still spending and you think of it as success.
Wow.
The position deserves to be mocked. You obviously don’t know a thing about it.
Pch101,
If GM went under it would of not placed the US economy into a depression. This is just a fantasy. GM should of been sold off, and as much money that was available should of paid down as much debt as possible. Then if any money was left over GM staff and the UAW should of then received their share.
By not allowing GM to be dissolved has defeated the purpose of a free market in allowing the dead wood to fail. What this has done is shown the American people that it is okay to fail as you will be resurrected. I suppose much welfare works on that principle. This is called socialism. The US is not much different than the EU in that respect.
The motor industry bailout was as much focused on furnishing the whining UAW with funds as the auto manufacturers.
GM went to Ford to look at forming a partnership. GM thought it was in a position to dictate terms to Ford as a senior partner. Ford execs laughed and told GM to get on their bikes and head back home.
It is not just fantasy…but a form of scare tactic used often these days by the government and power mongers to get the low life(s) and dirty clothed working bums to get on board and support.
If you do not support this policy, your lives will end. Our civilization will fold.
From the global warming to To big to Fail, it is all about forcing money into programs they deem the survival of the whole.
Only they are the whole and it is their survival.
They are the real recipients of the policies.
But once again, PC responds as all liberals do today…attack with name calling and innuendo and completely shut down voices of opposition.
It is what they do best.
You know sweet FA about economics or the monetary system, so your opinion doesn’t mean much. This country was staring at the abyss, and you just had your eyes shut.
I didn’t read BAFO’s comment, but it’s safe to assume that it’s even more worthless than yours.
The possibility of another Great Depression was neither fantasy nor scare tactic. Post-Lehman, the short term credit markets froze after some large money market funds “broke the buck”, something that is not supposed to ever happen. If govt action in the economy, including shoring up GM, hadn’t happened, thousands of small to medium sized businesses would have been unable to make payroll or pay bills without access to that short term credit market. Those markets are the financial grease that keeps the business gears turning in between goods and services being provided and payments received. For better or worse, our economy requires a deep level of trust that is only possible when investors know that someone will backstop the economy in the worst case scenario. We would all be better off if the kind of opaque transactions that precipitated the crisis were either prohibited or forced into public view, but Wall St has worked overtime to make sure that Dodd-Frank will not impede on their opportunity to privatize gains and socialize losses.
Ford had no money they were up to they eyeballs is hock, and who was gonna buy these GMbrands? No one was lending that kind of cash at that time. Hey I do not like the GM and handout to Fiat to make the big 3 the big 2 but less be fair it was probably the best thing that could have been done at the time, The gov bailed out plenty of companies because they felt they had to, mostly they got their/our money back and things are better now because of it.Much like today if Germany needs to bail out VW, which I doubt they would ned to do, they would you can not have a major pillar of your economy employing 1 zillion voters go under if you can help it.
Now, this is why I read JB. Right up there as a must read with Mark Steyn, Milo Yiannopoulos and Kevin Williamson. Thanks
Milo Yiannopolous… a class act. Doesn’t like to pay his contributors and spews ignorant and hate-filled vitriol against everyone not like him.
Mark Steyn… dumber than a box of rocks. Gets sued for defamation, can’t get the case thrown out (which in that area is a bad sign), and then calls the judge bad names while the case is still before her, causing his lawyers to fire him as a client. Also can’t do math… thinks Europe has been “taken over by Muslims” who are a whole 2% of the population.
Kevin Williamson is at least a decent guy (if misguided) but your batting average with the “must reads” is pretty low. Fortunately you’re right about Jack even if he occasionally veers off the rails as with this piece.
I’m not sure why you saw the need to insult boxes of rocks with that comparison.
“I cared about the idea that hundreds of thousands of children might go hungry if their parents lost their jobs.”
Hourly ladies at work make this sound when looking at each others’ baby pix on their phones…
“Oooahhhh!”
just saw this, exciting as all get out. too busy to digest at this time, response to come. thanks Big Jack!
This is still GM, maybe we should all manage our expectations. No, the Malibu will never be as good as the Accord. No, Cadillac will never be better than BMW or Mercedes. No, the Silverado will never look better than a Ram. And no, GM will have the best infotainment software.
$3000 down and $299/month on an Encore lease sounds terrible…
This all so strange and depressing.
We are really just witnesses to events that are t of our control. I remember the philosopher saying nothing is more powerful than an idea. When one takes a hold of the mass mindset, just try to avoid being consumed by it. Try to survive at best unnoticed. When government progressive theory arises the emotions of people…look out.
Just hope you are not in the cross-hairs.
When you voted for Clinton, the real damage was not you but the error in our system that allowed a third party candidate to take vote away, eventually allowing somebody to become president without the majority of the nation in agreement. In most other nations a run off would be required.
Next we have the rush to save or put policies into law without full review. Does anybody here remember Palosi advising us to pass Obamacare so we could see what is inside?????
Shouldn’t there have been some thought placed into the bailout to force specific corporate policy and future decision making?
But then again…To Big To Fail is one of the greatest untruths in our lives today.
I’m surprised that nobody’s directly mentioned the UAW’s acquiescence to this. The recently concluded deals between the UAW and the Detroit based automakers involve a lot more than the importation of one crossover from China. Is it really that much different than moving sedan and engine production to Mexico while UAW members in the U.S.ofA. still get to make bonuses building very profitable pickup trucks?
Ronnie,
I just did to make you happy.
Jack,
An amazingly well written post, one that resonates with me. I understand the frustration. I feel the same way, but…but it’s not grounded in the reality of the way the world works today. And the truth is that although we as a people have definitely been sold out to the global oligarch money borg, at the same time we have been rendered ignorant of what is really happening out there.
China…do you understand China? That they sell 3x the amount of Audis there? Think about that for a moment. This is an exploding car market…and they are not buying cheap Fiestas and Golfs like they do in Europe…they want Buicks and Audis and (now) SUVs. How do they afford them?
The fact is that China saved GM, not the US Government. The US Government protected GM intellectual property from falling into Chinese hands…which is what would have happened if GM was allowed to Die. They would have been taken over by the Chinese.
I understand the frustration and nostalgia of people who want to believe American should always be #1 in everything. But those days are gone. I have been to China and was amazed and the size and scope of everything there, you need to see it to believe it. It will shatter any of your paradigms to the point that you cannot orient yourself. Can you imagine cities so big and complicated that no person could every really get to know them? Cities not with dozens, but hundreds of ultra high end shopping malls, all selling Versace and Rolex?
While there, I rode in the minivan shown above. The target market is limousines and corporate bosses…families don’t buy them. The car is beautiful and very well made. It was designed locally.
There should be no reason to expect the cars from China won’t be as good as cars from any other country. At the same time, they are paying more for their Starbucks Cappuccinos than we are, so there is also no reason to expect in the long term that the cost of manufacture will be much cheaper either. Buick through GM built a massively profitable market, a market whose profits are flowing nicely into any 401k plan that has GM on the list…be happy that you, too are profiting from the Chinese monster growth engine.
At the same time, pay all of your bills, downsize your life and be ready for the big crash. Because it will come without warning! And the real reasons for it won’t be disclosed to you in your beloved New Your Times or Fox News, either.
Other have said, and I’m starting to believe, it will take decades for the sh*t show to really come tumbling down. The decline and fall of Rome comes to mind.
I had some thoughts recently which I can’t yet back up categorically but believe could be potential outcome scenario: the Fourth World War will be one of civil strife and not of nuclear weapons (the Third is considered the Cold War by many). There is no other logical reason to import inferior third world peoples other than to create tribal divisions in society which in maybe a generation result in full blown conflicts between foreigners and existing citizens. Forget the pundits, forget MSM, forget politicians’ messages because they are ALL paid liars and shills. You could argue cheap labor but you’ve already got 90 some million not working and large percentage of whom are able bodied under 35. The supply of available labor which works/will work cheaply has probably never been higher, at least in the last eighty years or so if I am wrong on the supply. No there is a much more sinister motive here: divide & conquer, sell weapons and debt to all sides, while backing an eventual winner. Same show as was run in Europe for what a thousand years or so? It works and its coming to a strip mall near you. Nukes are for having, not for using. Otherwise one of the loose nukes of the ostensible collapse of the Soviet Union would have gone off by now. Same thing will happen in the future with the remnants of the US military when nukes get loose in our collapse. Syria is a preview of our future. Take a close look at the clusterf*ck and ask yourself who is really with who and who is paying for all of the weapons on all sides and why are US airdrops reaching the bad guys? Why are Israelis med-evacing Sunni fighters to whom they are they next target? Why are the Saudis who FUND terrorism creating a Sunni alliance against it?
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3315347/Watch-heart-pounding-moment-Israeli-commandos-save-Islamic-militants-Syrian-warzone-risking-lives-sworn-enemies.html
http://www.spa.gov.sa/english/print.php?id=1429204
I’m sure by now we’ve all heard the Chinese saying “may you live in interesting times”? Its actually not a “saying”, but a curse.
Seems its coming true these days.
“If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered…I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies… The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs.”
Thomas Jefferson
https://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/private-banks-quotation
Jefferson complained about the banks, then relied on Barings Bank to finance the Louisiana Purchase. And the ability to obtain that financing was surely aided by the stability created by the Bank of the United States, which Jefferson also opposed.
I realize that it’s part of the American character to worship the founders, but the founders were also politicians who were perfectly capable of talking out of both sides of their mouths.
Like any good politician.
It comes down to personal choice, and sadly, most American consumers have already spoken when it comes to Chinese goods. It doesn’t matter that we send over $300 billion in negative trade equity to them each year…or that the import/export model is hopelessly slanted in favor of China (huge tariffs on imported goods to China, mandatory “joint ventures” with Chinese majority control, or if none of the above, then outright theft of intellectual property if not signed over at the time of JV formation). Nope…most consumers buy simply on price and then wonder why their friends, neighbors, family (or themselves) are out of work. I hear everybody talking about the fact that computers and phones and such are all Chinese-made, so what difference should a car make? The boat already sailed on the electronics, and I’m not banking on my life when I make a phone call or type on a laptop. And yes, GM is deserving of this vitriol (as are many, many other manufacturers) especially in light of the fact that my fellow citizens gave them eleventy-billion dollars in bailout cash.
I make a personal choice to buy as much American-made as I can. It’s personal to me and involves a rather life-changing event that I witnessed on board a C-17 flying out of Bagram Air Base when I started wondering why service members (my father and son included…I work the military civilian side, but have deployed to some “interesting” locations) fight and potentially die in the service of a country that by and large, really doesn’t care to take care of it’s self. If we are fine with shipping $300 billion to a country that is neither friend or ally, then why should we care to defend it? I know it’s a stretch, but there it is. We all have our own reasons for the choices we make, and “Made in China” will always be an absolute last choice for me.
I still believe that manufacturing is the life-blood of a country, and those that cannot produce for themselves are destined to become slave to those that can. America has been hemorrhaging for decades now, and the bleeding doesn’t appear to be slowing down. How much longer can a country survive if the middle class disappears? And to think…I steered my mother to a new Verano back in 2012 because it was still at least assembled in Orion, MI…
If we’re going to become the new coolies can we have opium?
“If we’re going to become the new coolies can we have opium?”
We already have it. It’s called cable television.
I dropped cable over 10 years ago because the history and tech shows were turning me into a vidiot, especially the digital restoration of old photos and film combined with the beginning of the big-screen TV phenom.
Now I’ll buy a DVD if something’s *that* interesting.
No, I want real opium with so bleak a future.
I expect that they’re working on the Soma formula to have it available in time for the big shift.
While the bailout stopped GM from going bankrupt right away, a big part of what actually saved GM in those dark days was the Chinese market and it’s thirst for cars, as well as the help of GM’s Chinese partner SAIC. Frankly, if GM had actually gone bankrupt SAIC would have most likely ended up buying it’s carcass to resurrect as a Chinese car company.
If the Chinese market wasn’t around to buy tons of Buicks in 2008-2010 there’s no chance in hell that any bailout of GM would have worked. If you think US sales would have been enough to keep GM’s bloated carcass afloat you’re out of your mind.
What the bailout money actually did was to allow GM to fund their obscene pension fund requirements so it was more a bailout of GM retirees and workers’ retirement benefits than anything that would have prevented GM from just going bankrupt all over. Literally $25 billion went towards employee benefits, and then another $9 billion of the cash from the US and Canadian governments went towards paying the governments themselves. So if you think that the bailout was somehow mostly of benefit to China you’re an idiot.
It was largely Chinese consumers that kept buying vehicles from GM that let it survive, and the lower cost Chinese workforce that kept GM competitive despite huge legacy costs here in the US so if you think GM will go and build out even more factories stateside you’re living in some alternate dimension.
TL;DR: The bailout saved everyone’s retirement money but China saved the new GM from going the same way as old GM.
Hmm – an I presume early middle aged man who lives at his Mom’s, and whose Mom has driven him around for the last five years, calls other men “bitch ass marks” – but not to their faces – sounds to me like your prototypical New Millenial Bad-Ass.
After I reading some of the comments I do believe that a few should stand back and assess why it is good to have global trade.
Why should any nation or people of a nation consider the fact that it is not fair to have another nation compete? The Chinese whether we like them or not do have the right to compete.
If the US isn’t in a competitive position, then the US should really stand back and consider what industries it should support and promote.
The voter and taxpayers have allowed this to occur. It seems the people who do support the unions are against any fairness. Yet they preach about what is not fair.
The Chinese market is a huge Buick market, it will provide money for the US.
I do believe there are many multinational businesses and companies operating in the US providing 100s of 1 000s of jobs. What’s the difference?
From a philosophical standpoint, you’re right Big Al. The reality is that throughout history, no world power ever got there by throwing open the doors of free trade and allowing in all comers.
That said, the other issue is competing with a country that does not have comparable environmental, labor, legal or health standards/laws/etc. This gives them, what I consider to be, an unfair advantage.
Selfish? You betcha.
During WWII, General Motors manufacturing plants were key to building all sorts of vehicles and equipment we needed to defeat the Axis powers:
http://www.military.com/general-motors/gm-military-history
Should we ever go to war with China (God forbid), GM’s Chinese plants will be nationalized by the Chinese and used to build the vehicles and equipment they need to defeat us.
Oh, what a feeling.
I know that the average American’s knowledge of history is limited to WWII movies, but wars aren’t fought like that anymore.
The heavy equipment used for the next war will be produced in dedicated plants during peacetime. The military-industrial complex exists today because it is no longer possible to hang around for two years getting everything ready once war has been declared — it is now necessary to be ready long before the war begins.
There is truth in what PCH says but there is truth that our military industrial complex is still dependent on american industrial might. In the past 10 years we have become somewhat dependent on COTS materials in our military equipment. Lot’s of this equipment is made outside of the US. First choice is often US manufacture but a lot of things (electrical comes to mind) are no longer made here. Currently there are still companies left that could make it here in the US and still have the tooling but have exited the market for higher volume arenas where others have dropped there commercial side and focused just on the military. In the end they are still codependent military and commercial manufacturing are in some ways never separated and there are many suppliers who could drop their commercial business and focus solely on military if required in war time. If we loose more of our industrial complex (which I believe actually seems to be rebounding somewhat lately) we may not be able to build the small components that keep planes flying and tanks moving and we won’t be able to get them fedexd in from France Germany Australia or China like we can now.
The point is that no one is going to shut down the auto industry and start building F-15s and M1 Abrams tanks in place of F-150s and Mustangs. It isn’t necessary, nor would it be feasible.
Fact: Jack Baruth is one of the best writers on the inter webs right now.
” The arrogance and blind narcissism of that enterprise have passed into legend, but at least they earned that arrogance by succeeding beyond Alfred Sloan’s wildest dreams.”
They may have earned it, but they spent it all long before your first car (and crash). And they kept that arrogance all the way to the end.
“I should “get over” the fact that the first volume distribution of Chinese automobiles in this country will be by the hands of a corporate-welfare recipient reanimated with American tax dollars.”
are we just, like, Pretending Volvo doesn’t exist(TM) or are we unaware that Volvo already sells a Chinese-built car in the US?
The S60 Inscription? LWB Chinese market S60 with loads of options?
” Don’t people read Nat Geo’s while growing up any more? Or do they all just look at the pictures now, and skip the reading of captions, much less the articles? ”
Sadly , that’s pretty much it Volando ;
Literacy in America has been declining steadily for several Decades now .
-Nate
I’m gonna make a school for Kids Who Can’t Read Good!
ZOOLANDER: [upset] What is this?
[throws model on the ground]
ZOOLANDER: A center for ants?!?
MUGATU: [confused] What?
ZOOLANDER: How can we be expected to teach children to learn how to read if they can’t even fit inside the building?
I knew you would enjoy that reference!
Sorry Corey, they already have a school for Kids Who Can’t Read Good…it’s called the public school system. No dismissal of teachers for poor performance allowed.
Solid piece of writing. I like it. Can’t say I agree with it all, but I agree with most of what you’re saying.
I hope this is the correct thread for this comment .
I used to work with one of those guys who only had to look at a Woman to make her pant .
He was 45 or so , 350 + # and had one eye that was white .
A smart Brother who’d often spend 2 plus hours avoiding 15 minutes of actual work , I wish I’d ever known what he did about pleasing Women as I was single part of that time I knew him .
You had to see it to believe it , I didn’t until we began going to lunch to gether , every Woman he was interested in , tried to get in the truck with us , it was simply amazing .
Leroy , you died far too young , I thank you for the things you taught me although we often argued .
-Nate