(H/T to Liberal Values)
I saw this and I could not pass it up.
I’ve already Blogged about another Madison Avenue Conservative who thinks that the Detroit auto worker is a piece of shit. (Who, by the way, removed my trackback, like the little fat coward fuck that he is…) Strike that, it’s still there. My bad. Was looking in wrong place. đ
Now have another Madison Avenue Conservative coming out against the American Auto worker. Mitt Romney, the idiotic Mormon Freak is now opening his mouth towards the Detroit Auto Worker.
Mormon freak boy writes:
IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It wonât go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.
Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course â the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.
I love cars, American cars. I was born in Detroit, the son of an auto chief executive. In 1954, my dad, George Romney, was tapped to run American Motors when its president suddenly died. The company itself was on life support â banks were threatening to deal it a death blow. The stock collapsed. I watched Dad work to turn the company around â and years later at business school, they were still talking about it. From the lessons of that turnaround, and from my own experiences, I have several prescriptions for Detroitâs automakers.
First, their huge disadvantage in costs relative to foreign brands must be eliminated. That means new labor agreements to align pay and benefits to match those of workers at competitors like BMW, Honda, Nissan and Toyota. Furthermore, retiree benefits must be reduced so that the total burden per auto for domestic makers is not higher than that of foreign producers.
That extra burden is estimated to be more than $2,000 per car. Think what that means: Ford, for example, needs to cut $2,000 worth of features and quality out of its Taurus to compete with Toyotaâs Avalon. Of course the Avalon feels like a better product â it has $2,000 more put into it. Considering this disadvantage, Detroit has done a remarkable job of designing and engineering its cars. But if this cost penalty persists, any bailout will only delay the inevitable.
Second, management as is must go. New faces should be recruited from unrelated industries â from companies widely respected for excellence in marketing, innovation, creativity and labor relations.
The new management must work with labor leaders to see that the enmity between labor and management comes to an end. This division is a holdover from the early years of the last century, when unions brought workers job security and better wages and benefits. But as Walter Reuther, the former head of the United Automobile Workers, said to my father, âGetting more and more pay for less and less work is a dead-end street.â
You donât have to look far for industries with unions that went down that road. Companies in the 21st century cannot perpetuate the destructive labor relations of the 20th. This will mean a new direction for the U.A.W., profit sharing or stock grants to all employees and a change in Big Three management culture.
The need for collaboration will mean accepting sanity in salaries and perks. At American Motors, my dad cut his pay and that of his executive team, he bought stock in the company, and he went out to factories to talk to workers directly. Get rid of the planes, the executive dining rooms â all the symbols that breed resentment among the hundreds of thousands who will also be sacrificing to keep the companies afloat.
Investments must be made for the future. No more focus on quarterly earnings or the kind of short-term stock appreciation that means quick riches for executives with options. Manage with an eye on cash flow, balance sheets and long-term appreciation. Invest in truly competitive products and innovative technologies â especially fuel-saving designs â that may not arrive for years. Starving research and development is like eating the seed corn.
Just as important to the future of American carmakers is the sales force. When sales are down, you donât want to lose the only people who can get them to grow. So donât fire the best dealers, and donât crush them with new financial or performance demands they canât meet.
It is not wrong to ask for government help, but the automakers should come up with a win-win proposition. I believe the federal government should invest substantially more in basic research â on new energy sources, fuel-economy technology, materials science and the like â that will ultimately benefit the automotive industry, along with many others. I believe Washington should raise energy research spending to $20 billion a year, from the $4 billion that is spent today. The research could be done at universities, at research labs and even through public-private collaboration. The federal government should also rectify the imbedded tax penalties that favor foreign carmakers.
But donât ask Washington to give shareholders and bondholders a free pass â they bet on management and they lost.
The American auto industry is vital to our national interest as an employer and as a hub for manufacturing. A managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the industry needs. It would permit the companies to shed excess labor, pension and real estate costs. The federal government should provide guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing and assure car buyers that their warranties are not at risk.
In a managed bankruptcy, the federal government would propel newly competitive and viable automakers, rather than seal their fate with a bailout check.
Hey, Mormon freak boy! Care to share how many workers your asshole father laid off, while he was the President of American Motors? Do you also care to share with the rest of the country of how much of a disaster your daddy’s term as Governor of the State of Michigan was? Especially with his aborted run for President of the United States?
I did agree with some of what he wrote like this:
Second, management as is must go. New faces should be recruited from unrelated industries.
[….]
The need for collaboration will mean accepting sanity in salaries and perks. At American Motors, my dad cut his pay and that of his executive team, he bought stock in the company, and he went out to factories to talk to workers directly. Get rid of the planes, the executive dining rooms â all the symbols that breed resentment among the hundreds of thousands who will also be sacrificing to keep the companies afloat.
However, when freak boy writes stuff like this here:
The American auto industry is vital to our national interest as an employer and as a hub for manufacturing. A managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the industry needs. It would permit the companies to shed excess labor, pension and real estate costs. The federal government should provide guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing and assure car buyers that their warranties are not at risk.
Yeah, let’s kick all the fucking retirees to the damned curb, let’s get rid of all the fucking unions and let the god damn workers work for minimum wages and not give the middle class to have a chance to have a piece of the American dream. All the while the big three make all the damn money and we the middle class American worker gets screwed. Two Words Romney; fuck you! đĄ
Classic Madison Avenue, snobby nosed, fiscal Conservatism, the classic Republican attitude of, “I’ve got mine and screw you.”
That mother fucker Romney had better not run in fucking 2012, he wouldn’t get fucking vote one, at least not from this Moderate Libertarian Conservative, not at all. It just so happens that if the big three here in Detroit crash, the whole fucking area will collapse. But that mother fucking Madison Avenue asshole doesn’t care, he’s got his fucking millions. So, it will not affect him.
The State of Michigan has been in recession since around 2001 or so. unemployment is though damned roof, if we let these companies fail, which they will do, if we do not bail them out. If that happens, the economy will go into a full blown nose-dive and this area will become another damned Russia, people will leave in mass and there will be massive bread-lines, it will make for an horrific event.
But the fucking asshole Madison Avenue Conservatives could give a fuck less, they’ve got theirs. Which is why I could never, ever call myself a fucking Republican, Ever!
I am not a fan of Nationalizing of anything, but we’ll prop banks up, and keep the wealthy rich, but to hell with the middle class auto worker. What idiotic bullshit! đĄ
Some people, like Mormon freak boy Mitt Romney ought to be seen and not heard. Period!
