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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: SecularBull who wrote (112019)	12/12/2000 12:20:34 PM
From: WTSherman	Respond to of 769670

<The quality of their cars suffers as a result of two things, 1) the high cost of US labor, and 2) the competitive pricing from foreign manufacturers with better products. In order to keep prices low, the quality has to be sacrificed to make up for the higher wage costs. It's a pretty simple concept for most educated people to grasp.< You're right, it is a pretty simple concept to grasp. Of course, its based upon false assumptions. First, ALL of the mfg's that have been beating GM's brains in have identical contracts with UAW. So, labor cost for a BMW made in S.C. or a Toyota made in the Midwest is very similar. Moreover, cost of labor in both Germany and Japan is higher than here. Second, if you don't understand that GM's problems have been related to the poor, unattractive designs and low quality of their cars you don't understand the auto market at all. GM has had its problems with the UAW and until the late 80's the UAW took a stance that they didn't care about the health of the company. But, the root cause of GM's problems are GM's management. You simply have to look at the relative performance of Ford and GM over the past 15 years to understand that GM has inferior products with superior resources. The difference is the crappy GM management. People who want to blame the GM workers for the problems at GM are missing the forest for the trees. BTW, do you own a GM car? If not, why not?