Quote:
Originally Posted by cardiacpaul
Lets take a look at this from the other side of the fence.
I'm not behind in my floor plan, I'm meeting the goals that you said I had to (even if it is 3 cars a month), and service approval rating is within your acceptable range.
I've held up my end, in some cases for more than 4 decades.....
If the company chose to not renew, thats one thing, understandable, voiding before the renewal date? not going to be pretty.
|
Hah, you might be more of a bleeding heart that I am!
From a human perspective, your point makes perfect sense. But from a legal and business one, it does not.
We could apply your exact words to a hard worker whose father worked in the GM plant - and his father too. They gave their entire lives to the firm. They made good money and took out a mortgage on a home. Then they took out a second mortgage to put their kids through college, so the kids would not have to work on the assembly line.
BUT, now, they are out of work. They and tens or hundreds of thousands...or MILLIONS of others. They can't pay their mortgage or their second mortgage. They can't pay their credit cards off, because they have no income.
We could apply the same words to the parts suppliers of GM, who now have no parts to supply because there are no cars being built.
The sad fact (or grim reality) of business is this. Bankruptcy or failure of a business clears the way for a complete screwing of ALL the people involved, from the stockholders to the employees to the pensions and suppliers. ALL OF THEM.
I'm not saying this is the way it should be. My brother worked for Lucent for 20+ years and built up a pension, health care and other benefits. Then they, like most other corporations in this country, renegotiated and used fine print to get out of most of their obligations.
I guess the basics of this are "you can't get blood from a stone". But we all assumed that pensions were somewhat safe because they were separate. Turns out they were invested in the same company stock, ongoing operations and stock market that we all were.
In my industry, we recently had one of the largest manufacturers - the TOP brand name - get bought and sold a couple of times. The newest entity which owns them has REFUSED to honor any warranties on stuff sold over a year ago (the products have 3-5 year warranties).
Is that fair? Of course not. But I didn't make the laws. Pointing out the way things are and agreeing with them are two separate things.
Behind all of this crap is really one thing. We went too far (maybe not you and I, but WE as an economy) down the road of blatant consumerism and consumption without keeping any controls on the beast. Like the proverbial "Giving Tree" (we all read that, right?), we have taken too much from something that does not have anymore to give. The result is pain. The pain does not fall where it should (if Justice and Fairness was the organizing principle of the universe).
In the end, Government should be a tool which attempts to provide Justice and Fairness - but it is always an imperfect one. At the same time, the Barbarian way will be vastly worse!
Just like we can blame everything on Clinton or Bush, we can also (and more accurately) blame things on the fact that GM and the American car makers fought HARD for the last 30 years against ANY increase in CAFE standards. Instead, they broke the spirit of the regulations (SUVs were only allowed because they called them trucks)...and actually brought the average MPG down. They failed to innovate.
We are seeing the results. But at the same time, if they would not have fought government tooth and nail when government was trying to regulate them (better MPG, etc.), they might be in a better position.
I feel for the dealers...but more for the employees of the dealers, suppliers and car makers...because there are vastly more of them! And, if the dealer had any intelligence, they would have stashed away some other money over the decades. The suppliers and employees often don't have that option. They have unemployment insurance and that is it.