My question would be: If we engage in a MAJOR war, where obviously the volume of needed war product increases exponentially, how could we meet such demand by the usual suppliers?
Obviously a well trained work force in heavy manufacturing as well as modern facilities which have a much easier and faster conversion or change-over time frames would ensure our triumph, let alone survival...

 

But I think, until our guru's in corporate hierarchy realize that paying GOOD wages and benefits ensures, not only their survival, but prosperity and growth, these bleak times will drag on..and repeat.

 

" In my opinion "......There can be and there is much conjecture about what bankruptcy means to us all. First of all let’s mention the CAW. The CAW is more than a union in the business sense. The CAW is a culture born of "generations" of workers and contractual agreements. In itself either the workers or the contracts they signed over the years mean anything other then what it is. A group of workers banned together in force protected by labour law and recognized by the company as the bargaining unit with whom agreements are made in order to continue production under what both entities have agreed are fair conditions. Originally "unions" were born out of the need to ensure that "conditions" such as pay was fair and work sites were safe!
Over the years these contractual items as pay, pensions, benefits, etc became tools that both parties would increasingly utilize to make each other "rich”! The CAW saw pays and benefits grow to very luxurious levels! GM was able to do nothing more than continue production. It was always the need to continue production that the car company believed was good reason to continue and always to allow hourly benefits to increase to a level not even affordable anymore. GM would see hard times and losses would be so phenomenal that the governments would have to guarantee hugely gross amounts in loans. Never did the unions have to suffer the loses alongside their "mother ship"! GM revenues and losses were always up and down due to market supply and demand, more lately due to stiff competition from foreign automakers. What has happened though through all of this is the creation of a "culture", a culture where it has been customary that "no matter what" we get and we keep, we deserve, why should we change, etc. Something that was forgotten is that the corporation and its shareholders are the ones who are invested and do so to make profit! Where does it say and why should it be that the workers should be overpaid and continue making higher wages then the market condition dictate or when the company has hard times! The CAW's benefits and remunerations have always been super generous! By having historically giving into the demands even demands that did not match business needs well doing at the time or future....... a culture now exists that does not see anything except what the culture has always seen.......... a system that is there for their gain and sustainment at the cost of the company that feeds them, the taxpayer that supplies the loans as needed, and last and maybe forgotten in the contracts, the buyer of the product they make! The CAW is proving it buy being so blind today! The CAW does not "see" that by holding out they are helping to assist in the demise of their own company...... and why? The CAW is so sure that the taxpayers will come to their rescue. IMO the CAW does not understand that for once, all parties involved have to suffer the big losses. It is the only way the big company can perform a turnaround! The CAW has to wake up and understand that if they don’t give back allot of what they gained when they shouldn’t have, the Automobile manufacturing business in Canada may very well disappear............. no bluffs in this plan ! GM is showing the backbone now that would have saved them for today by showing it many years ago! Today, in order to have a job with a profitable competative company, the workers will have to face a job market where you get nothing more then fair compensation for each hour worked ! Today that does not mean getting more out of a company then you put in and it does not mean getting "your share of the "investors profits" !! All in my opinion folks!

 

Well said Riderover40! UAW is the same. Entitlement mentality.

 

Actually...de[pending on the subject, it most certainly DOES make you smarter than a whole lot of people.

Let's be honest for a moment. Most people in this country are complete idiots. they either put personal beliefs ahead of reason, base their politics on sound bites or meaningless catch phrases by one political party or another, are psyschologically attached to a label like conservative or liberal, and like to paint everything with broad strokes (labor unions are all "bad", instead of labor unions were good, and simply let themselves go too far). Both ends of the political spectrum demonize the other, and the vast majority of people in this country are far too lazy to cut through the rhetoric and actually make an intellegent decision on who is the best person for the job.



I put far more faith in opinions of older people who have been around awhile than I put in an idealistic person that's say still in their 20s, let alone still in their teens. Those who spent time overseas in other countries have a unique view of someone who has been outside looking in. Those who actually spent time in the military tend to have far more balenced views of the world and military capabilities and when the military should be used, as opposed to the Dick Cheneys of the world who got deferments and never served in any military branch, or the George W's who spent a little time in the National Guard and thinks that gives them military credibility.

Living through the 70s, you remember that muscle cars died in 1970-1972 well before strict emissions (1974) and CAFE (1977) killed them. You remember that Mustang IIs sold over 300,000 vehicles per year and were a huge success, not a dismal failure. Jimmy Carter actually popular till the last 2 months of his presidency. We lived in fear that the ruskies would invade Europe, and we'd have to launch... and the vast majority of the members of this site wouldn't have likely been even born... let alone GM being around (the manufacturing facilities of both countries had huge nuclear bullseyes painted on them).

Sure, there may be people who may be experts on certain things, but yes, if you were in the military & served overseas, and if you lived in the 70s and 80s and personally had 1st hand experience on an era that those younger can only read about (and form flawed opinions) then, on those subjects and on world views and outlook on the United States both flaws and greatness, then yes... they are smarter than the 99.9% of others who do not, whenever that subject does come up.

Sorry.