Yup, that's about the size of it
I seriously doubt that any of my regular readers were or are confused about the relationship between pension and healthcare costs and the financial problems of US automobile manufacturers, but I am a sucker for a good timeline, particularly when carried out through the medium of sarcasm.
It's a pity there's no mention of Walter Reuther's offer to the Big 3 - help get national healthcare passed and we'll let you off the health bennies. They actually signed a blank cheque rather than pass on the ideology.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I thought everyone who cared had read The Machine That Changed The World already? Apparently not, going by the number of people I've had to prescribe it for. (Ah, Mrs Miggins McArdle. Convinced the unions are at fault for GM's inefficiency again? Take one TMTCW and it should clear up in a week.)
That will be 5p in the McArdle swearbox please ... yes, it's a good book - albeit that it eventually spawned its own genre of Toyotabollocks, which tends to revolve around massive confusion between lean production (which is pretty much the definition of a centralised command & control system, albeit one with very good communication) and kaizen.
ReplyDeleteI'd put the failings of Big Auto down to simple bad luck - basically, making money out of cars is difficult, it's not as if Nissan, Renault, VW or basically anyone except Toyota and BMW manage to do it consistently.
True. Now where did I put that giant syringe of perfectly legal diamorphine I prescribed myself? Medicine is a gentlemanly profession.
ReplyDeleteBMW have had serious quality problems in the last few years due to problems with suppliers. They outsourced a lot more of their component manufacture, and found that its hard to maintain quality when you do that. I don't know if they've fixed these problems, but for a while their cars scored as below average on quality (along with Merc).
ReplyDeleteToyota's not had anything like the same problems, but they've been less successful at maintaining quality control in overseas factories.
Incidentally I wonder if lean production will survive the current downturn. It might be efficient, but there's not much slack for contingencies such as bankruptcy, or the total collapse of the world's credit system. As car companies seem to have discovered.
I'd imagine most new cars are sold on credit, aren't they? Except Premiership footballers' Porsches.
ReplyDelete(Do people know the story about Matt "Mediocre" Prior sledging an incoming Indian batsman by saying "What do you drive? I drive a Porsche"? The best part is the identity of the batsman....)
...and Honda, I'd think. But I guess the car experts would say Honda is an engine company, not a car company.
ReplyDeleteejh: I'll admit it, I googled. But I also guessed the batsman. Prior claims that it was part of some ongoing product-placement banter between the slip cordon, after he received a complimentary bottle of bubbly from a maker whose name he mentioned in earshot of the stump microphone.
ReplyDeleteMy take: GM is America's crackwhore, and has had a lot of johns in its time. It's not as if yer car-buying American public hasn't demanded big, stupid vehicles on easy payments, right up to the point that they didn't. (And a Bud-esque contrarian rejoinder that Chevy makes decent cars won't do.)