The Observation Deck

It looks like General Motors is heading for bankruptcy sooner than anyone expected. The Bank of America is predicting bankruptcy in a mater of months if not sooner.

For years GM paid wages and benefits at a level it simply could not afford. There are more people collecting benefits from GM than are working for GM.

The unions at GM demanded more pay and greater benefits even as GM's market share declined. They refused to consider pay and benefit cuts until it was to late.

The management at GM was slow to adapt innovative designs that would attract customers. Management was so paralyzed by the fear of a strike that they agreed to wage and benefit packages that were unsustainable.

Do governments have anything to learn from the demise of GM?

Does the City of Lakewood have anything to learn from GM?

What are your thoughts?

Bill Call wrote:
Do governments have anything to learn from the demise of GM?

our government won't learn squat. if it affected some of their special interest pals, maybe government would throw money at it and worry about consequences later. but really, it's been a long time since our government learned anything.

gg unions.

It never hurts to look back at what we were saying a couple of years ago.

I love a forward thinking pessimist

Colleen Wing wrote:I love a forward thinking pessimist

Pessimism is the new optimism!

Lakewood will do better than expected in this tough economic environment. If the actions taken last year by the Fitzgerald administration were taken four years ago by the previous administration the City would be in the cat bird seat.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catbird_seat

What actions will be taken four years from now should be taken now?

Bill--- You have once again just taken one aspect of a situation and magnified it in an attempt to use it as a full explanation.
To wit-----labor/management issues certainly have played a part in the difficulties that GM and other old line industries face.
However, when a car buyer goes looking for a new car, I would suggest that other factors, namely engineering, quality, styling, pricing and quality are the primary factors that influence a car purchase.
Every car buyer in America goes into the market with those criteria and over the years they have chosen cars produced by the non Big Three at increasing rates to the point where GM, Ford, and Chrysler have less than half the domestic market.
The guys on the line build what management tells them to at whatever wages and benefits.
If management can't meet the above consumer demands, the company fails.
It ain't rocket science!
Stan