[Marxism] GM and Chrysler: Goodbye Yellow Brick Road.

[Waistline2 at aol.com]

I am personally experiencing some anxiety and fear I have never known  
before. This is not pleasant. 
 
As a retired Chrysler worker - October 2001, the idea of the company not  
existing in 30 days is scary. The government only protects a small fraction of  
ones pension. And my check did not arrive today. At age 57, I just might have 
to  get that ski mask out, kept in the trunk of the car. 
 
When the financial spokesperson of Ford announced, back in 2001/2 that we  
had entered an era of "profitless prosperity" - increasingly valueless  
production, he might have known what he was talking about. His speech was  reported on 
Pen-L back when it was presented. The equity boyz run the show in  auto and 
government. The industrial capitalist is dead . . . . long dead, and so  am I. 
 
Chrysler had been reduced below 20,000 workers. 
 
When I hired in back in 1971, we stood at roughly 125,000 UAW members. The  
technology that is going to be embedded in the new generation of factories,  
producing a new generation of vehicles, will probably enable 30,000 to do what  
125,000 once did, and this includes parts. 
 
Should have followed my dad to Ford. Didn't want to work under my father,  so 
my older brother and I, with infinite wisdom, went to Chrysler. Plus,  the 
great proletarian revolution was brewing in the Chrysler division and who  did 
not want to earn their stripes alongside thick beefy arm proletarians? Well,  
my arms never got beefy, the revolution was given pink slips and the workforce  
as I had known it went into irreversible decline. 
 
Brother retired last May, with 40 years seniority and a union pension.  A 
total pension of $7K a month is twice what I get. Probably should have done  the 
union thing different. No union pension for me. Might have to move in with  
him. 
 
Should have stayed on the farm and listened to my old man. 
Goodbye yellow brick road.:-(
 
Pardon, while I wash off the old ski mask. 
 

WL. 
 

_http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/03/obama-pushing-quick-surgical-big-auto.
html_ 
(http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2009/03/obama-pushing-quick-surgical-big-auto.html)   --------------------------------------------snip What is Team 
Obama smoking? It  isn't to their advantage to have an unrealistic view of the 
process, yet the  pronouncements strongly suggest they haven't done sufficient 
due diligence on  what this entails. 
 
And consider this comment from a reader: The "Chapter 11" reorganization  
idea is an assumption. There is little contemporary evidence that a Chapter 11  
reorganization of GM can succeed under the current system. A Chapter 7  
bankruptcy liquidation is more likely. And there is no evidence Chrysler will do  
anything other than liquidate. 
 
It would be better if we were wrong, but this looks like Lehman redux. The  
powers that be are getting bailout pushback, and aren't willing to take any  
financial perps out, so by default it's Big Auto. And if they miscalculated, the 
 consequences will be catastrophic. It won't simply be GM and Chrysler, but 
the  parts makers, and the transplants will take hits due to the loss of 
suppliers.  GM and Chrysler are not isolated players, but major components in a 
large  ecosystem. There are no good answeres here, but the Administration does not 
 appear to have thought this out (how many balls does Geithner have in the 
air,  including the G20?). A miscalculation here would have major repercussions. 
But  Andrew Mellon would be pleased. 
 
 
 

-raghu. 
 
**************Feeling the pinch at the grocery store?  Make dinner for $10 or 
less. (http://food.aol.com/frugal-feasts?ncid=emlcntusfood00000001)