The Point of KNOW Return...

(Apologies to the band KANSAS for the Headline)


CNN.COM 06/02/09
Excerpt from and interview with the CFO of GM regarding their current position, and plans moving forward (the bold highlight is mine):


"....Kiran Chetry (CNN): Under the restructuring plan, the government will give the company $30 billion additional in taxpayer money, amounting to $50 billion so far. It’s the largest amount, besides AIG, dolled out by the government. In a nutshell, can you explain what went so wrong for General Motors?
Ray Young (GM CFO): Kiran, we admit there have been errors in the past that we’ve made at General Motors. We’ve had a lot of extra excess costs, excess capacity over the years. We’ve got…defined benefit obligations that have really hurt us in the balance sheet. But going forward, Kiran, we’re going to learn from our mistakes. And we’ve been given a once in a lifetime opportunity to restructure the balance sheet, to shed a lot of our extra capacity, extra costs, and move forward with a profitable new General Motors that’s going to be smaller but more focused with four core brands and with a cost structure that is very, very efficient...."



Noooo...... WRONG. And arrogant. GM's "once in a lifetime opportunity" was back in the late 1970's, when they INITIALLY weren't able to compete in the auto market. By not looking ahead, learning the lessons of the day, and becoming VIABLY competitive then, they merely set the stage for this debacle.

How DARE you?!! Any intelligent person could see that for the past 30 YEARS, the American auto industry was not learning or changing to maintain viability. Sure - build those massive, inefficient trucks and focus sales and marketing on the SUV. It goes beyond "being green". It screams of short sightedness. Pollution, and the simple fact that were were more and more dependant on a dwindling, finite fuel made that business plan arrogant and idiotic. Did NO ONE look at the path of American manufacturing of ANYTHING and take heed?

"But Americans WANT big cars...." Then you sucked at salesmanship.
And now we "have" to help in order to prevent unfathomable unemployment and a cascading landslide of wrecked businesses, communities and lives.

Thanks for being such crappy business people. Let's see... here's a concept that doesn't make sense to a 2 years old: People want to pay NOTHING for a big, huge truck or monster SUV, and yet work for the company that MAKES these vehicles and receive full pensions, not contribute to their health benefits and make massive wages.

Stupid fools.

You HAD your once in a lifetime opportunity - and you screwed the pooch.