<p>I am back from my travels. Congratulations to president Elect Obama :)</p>
<li><p>Now I am wondering if Obama administration will penalize Wall mart as most of the democrats are against Wallmart because it does not pay well to it employees and does not provide health insurance to the employees. I have an article from one of the senior supporters that he is praising Wall mart to save the public more than $50 billion. </p></li>
<li><p>Will Congress have enough votes to pass legislation to support General Motors. I am worried that if GM or F goes down, we may have more layoffs and in turn economy may tank further down. What do you guys think. Thanks for your opinions.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>I’m sensing that no one outside the rust belt seems to think the Big 3’s issues are a big deal. Unfortunately, I think that may be a mistake. I think I am in the minority, though. Time will tell …</p>
<p>I agree that if WalMart ran GM then there would be no need for bailout talk. On the other hand, if all companies paid their employees the way Walmart does …</p>
<p>I think the Big 3’s problems are very real. I also think just giving them another $25 Billion will just defer the day they have to completely change their business model. The need to void all current union contracts and offer a program similar to the average of what the Japanese companies offer here in pay and benefits. Take it or move on. Retiree benefits need to be rapidly phased out and model what the Japanese firms offer. Then they might have a fighting chance.</p>
<p>If GM had made the types of cars that Americans wanted to buy, there would be no need for a bail out. I think it really needs to be liquidated, to be replaced by a brand new American auto maker that can start over.</p>
<p>Why is the American car industry taking so long to build a SMALL hybrid car. I’m not interested in a Hybrid Escape or Tahoe. I want something small like the Civic, Prius or Altima hybrids. Surely one of them could put a hybrid engine into one of the smaller vehicles it makes (I was thinking the Focus would be the perfect size for a commuter hybrid). When (in a few years) we replace a car, it will be with one of the above hybrids (not for fuel costs payback but for the environmental reasons). The U.S. auto industry is moving too slowly in this type of market and it’s one of the reasons it is faltering. </p>
<p>Back in the 80’s, the only cars with somewhat decent mileage that were made by the Big 3 were just plain junk. OTOH, Toyota, and Honda and Nissan were doing a great job building reliable cars that got good gas mileage. So…that’s what we bought.</p>
<p>Years ago Nissan was in huge trouble. The quality of their cars deteriorated, and the cars were considered unreliable, ugly, overpriced. The stock was down in the single digits. The company reinvented itself very quickly, and now Nissans are considered sexy, cool and fun. GM need to turn around if they want to be competitive, but the current situation is not helping them. I’m still on the fence about the bailout for them. I agree, they can sell lots of small cool cars, and not only here in the US. Eastern Europe and Russia are still not saturated, but you can’t sell big rigs there.</p>
<p>No matter how many cars they build and sell the Big 3 cannot make money on the cars due to their cost structure. It’s very simple and they can’t make it up on volume. Smaller cars are even more problematic.</p>