Having had considerable experience with UK unions I can attest to the
collapse of the UK car makers was 90% the fault of the unions and 10%
the fault of management who did not do anything about unions. Only
Margaret Thatcher had the guts to stand up and break the unions
(miners) incredibly stupid position (..."we don't care if we are
unproductive, the market for our goods has gone, and we are paid more
than anyone else - we want better pay, more benefits and job
security....") - and I come from a miner's family. What is so very
funny is that when the UK union bosses found that they too were out
of work because the car industry had collapsed, they came over to
North America. Canada had Irish, Welsh and English trade unionists
and I believe they had them in Detroit too. Thus we had a Detroit
with destructive union influences as well as design teams that could
not design decent cars and did not have the skills to copy the
surging Japanese (now Korean, Chinese et al). I remember a saying
attributed to the Pres of GM. Who said "What is good for GM is good
for the USA". Well, GM did crash only to be saved by someone stupidly
loaning money. The other Pres saying I remember is "We don't make
cars, we make profits". The Japanese concentrated on making cars and
Detroit concentrated on ?
As for the public buying, one can attribute that to the massive
expenditure of Detroit advertising, and municipalities blinkered
into building transportation for BIG horribly handling gas guzzling
behemoths. Just look at the NA sub divisions !!! Of course the NA
attitude of "mine is bigger than yours" or "never mind the quality
feel the width" helps too.
At 12:42 PM 4/19/2012, The Roxter wrote:
>On 4/18/2012 8:26 PM, Max Heim wrote:
>>Not to start another flame war, but I have to say I'm curious where this
>>viewpoint is coming from -- clearly, all manufacturers who sold cars in th
>>US, not just the Detroit-based ones, were subject to the same government
>>regulations. So how did this kill the "American car market", which seems to
>>have survived to the present day? More different companies build cars in the
>>US today than did in the "unregulated" 1960s.
>Before the rabid environmentalists took over, cars were designed to
>be bought by people. American car manufacturers tried to build cars
>Americans wanted. Then the politicians got into the game, with
>"CAFE" standards and crash tests pushing the designs from opposite
>directions. Foreign car-makers were already making smaller cars, so
>they had an advantage under the new laws. The new standards weren't
>the only influence that killed Detroit; the unions helped in its
>demise. Perhaps you have seen the sets of pictures that show
>Hiroshima and Detroit today.
>
>-Rock
>_______________________________________________
>
>Mgs at autox.team.net
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Regards
Barrie
barrie at look.ca
(705) 721-9060
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