Thanks for a good counter-argument. But I still stand by my assessment, without dismissing yours, either.

Ah, young JDE, of TL:DR, attention span of a two-year-old, yes, I did exactly state “still in production” in my original post. That’s how I copied and pasted it into quotation marks in my reply. So my hat is safe from the dinner table.

“As soon as you can name one car or truck currently in production...”

Okay, I know that I am old and a luddite, but how exactly is it necessarily bad that we don’t see a faster model turnover in EVs. Really, how? With average age of vehicles on the road today at 11 years or so, that means a shit-ton of folks don’t get hung up on buying a new model because shiney. Most model changes are…

Well, the whole argument that EV cars cost more to build does not take into account a simple idea. We don’t have a big infrastructure for batteries, at least one similar to the supply chains for ICE production. Remember that an ICE uses a block that the OEMs make in their amortized foundries, many having been around…

Enthusiasts, as their nature is more attuned to these things, are going to be able to tell small differences, but the general public never does. Doubt me? History is ripe with examples. How many old commercials actually have people who don’t know enough about cars to spot glaring differences? Ford’s Granada was no…

One of the benefits of being old is having experienced a lot of things, so you have a good perspective on what works, what doesn’t, and why. The sad truth is that the basic form of a SUV, or more specifically a CUV, suits more people for their transportation needs than just about any other. The CUV, really a lifted…

Not doubting you, but I have to wonder if the perception is due to expectations over actuality. See, we have a tendency to believe what we think is better to be better. Kind of a placebo effect, really.

True. But the issue is not in what a company says about itself, rather, what the media ends up saying. And for now, the media, and a lot of regular folks, still use that term luxury when it is really no longer valid.

I’ll take a Ferrari GTFO any day....

Again, you have this idea that the Union provides workers. They do not.

Well, the whole idea of mass market is really changed from even the not-so-distant past. Up to this century, there was a clearly defined separation of “mass market” marques, sports car marques, and luxury marques. There was some overlap, yes, but not a lot. You knew a Porsche was a sports car, a Rolls Royce was a…

See, that is how fucked up everyone is. Wrong about shareholder value above all others. That is bullshit that only took hold in the Reagan years.

I agree with you. There could be some simple options if both sides were reasonable and rational. In this case, neither GM nor the UAW are either reasonable or rational.

But those same governments will also send those not going to university to a trade school. Last I checked, welders make more money than $10 per hour, and are quite handy to have around in factories.

Again, how is a $10 an hour job better than nothing? Real world, that $10 an hour wage will support you, alone, just barely. If you have kids, no, you don’t have enough money at $400 per week before taxes or healthcare deductions to make it work. When rent or housing costs are more than 33% of your take home pay, you…

It does make one question whether it is better to be starving continuously or to outright die of starvation. One can argue that death is at least the end of the suffering, and the being continuously starved is just putting off today what will happen tomorrow.

That’s exactly why GM is using salaried employees. They do not want to hire any new workers, as they would not be able to get rid of them easily once the situation goes back to normal. Likewise, if the trucks were not selling, or Wentzville was making sedans, they would just shut the damned plant down immediately,…

I am somewhat in agreement, but the question at hand is “has the situation really changed so radically that the contract rules should not be enforced?” and as far as I can see, no, the situation is not really changed enough to warrant the actions of GM. Now, if it were a situation where there was nobody to work the…

As noted in another post, the UAW does not hire or provide any employees, only represents them. In this case, GM does all the hiring of employees. The UAW has no obligation to ensure that there is a suitable workforce, nor do they provide supplemental workers. All of the employment is determined by GM. They can hire…