Has anyone suggested that GM and Ford do like the airlines and renegotiate the contracts to stay in business?
 

Yes, I guess Pat didn't really read Thomas Friedman very carefully. What Pat doesn't mention is the fact that America is more productive than ever which means fewer people are needed to do the same amount of work. That runs counter intuitive to the fact that we have the most vibrant economy in the world with unemployment in the 4 percent range.

So what if we don't have manufacturing jobs? Most Americans work in the information industry and other nations will eventually have to catch up with us. Americans simply don’t have to do the dirty work anymore. Who really wants to go back and do 10 hours of sewing a day? Heck, at one time we had 90% of Americans working on the farm but do we really want to go back to the "good old days"?
 

General Motors says: "...we make what the public wants." so the public wants fuel-efficient Toyotas and Hondas. Why does GM continue to make those scourges of the road, giant, gas-guzzling enclosed trucks i.e. SUVs. Best we re-think "what's good for General Motors is good for the country."
 

Perhaps its all more basic than that. GM led this decline, and now appears likely to climb out of it before Ford does too.

GM and Ford, both, have suffered sales slumps by producing cars that are not as popular lately (2005-2006) as they were a few years ago. Ford, in particular, embraced this choice more deeply than other manufacturers. The business strategy and plan that produced big revenue then is sagging now. These companies will recover when their offerings match consumer desires more closely.

Take a look at Honda and Toyota, both successful sellers at present. Their product lineup is wider and more popular.
 

The answer is very simple. UAW, UAW, UAW.
The United Auto Workers have destroyed this company like a cancer slowly rotting from the inside out.
Do you know that if you factor in the pensions GM pays into its net-worth the company would be worth minus $16 billion?
Before they closed down the GM plant here in Oklahoma, GM was paying over 2300 workers full salary to do NOTHING!
Also, unions create union job classifications. When a job needs doing, the union wants 4 or 5 different classes of workers to get in on one simple thing. If you look at non-union auto companies, they have 3 or 4 classes of workers at the most. UAW has something like 40 different classifications, and rules that regulate their interactions. Its no wonder why non-union companies make a better product and actually make a profit. (Toyota makes 2-3000 per vehicle, and GM LOSES $2500!
I’m sorry but when you can force a company to pay a 50 year old employee $50 per hour to sweep the factory floor just because he has “earned it” by being in the union for so long, your doomed to destroy that company in the long run.
 

Why does GM continue to make those scourges of the road, giant, gas-guzzling enclosed trucks i.e. SUVs.Better question: Why do dummies think that they need these vehicles?
 

Yeah, the UAW is killing them, Big Auto has spoiled the Unions for so many years, now things have gotten out of control, and Ford & GM are stuck. Unions act like money grows on trees...

absurd thought -
God of the Universe loves
over-paid unions...
.
 

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A broken clock and Pat have the same things in common. I don't think his opinion is any more valuable than the broken clock. Do you think you could find someone with some credibility? George (above) is largely right.
 

R. Williams
"Post Industrial Revolution"
We the people fell for the Service Economy that is now being
outsourced to Spain, South Africa, France. Call any computer tech support and you will be talking to the people in these countries for service. The Service Economy Failed and China owns the good ole USA.