General Motors files for bankruptcy ! The world's biggest car maker crashes to earth amid this global economic meltdown - and it's demise shows that size is no defence against stupidity !
For decades the big three American car companies have been making the wrong kind of cars.
The product they churned out were big, gas guzzling monsters of doubtful reliability and short lifespan. Management refused to listen to it's customers - and competitors sucked the life blood out of it's revenue stream.
Perhaps we are about to see worse times ahead. As a result of this restructuring the United States government will pour billions into the company - and take up a seventy percent ownership share !
We are about to see a socialist political party as the controlling shareholder of the world's biggest motor manufacturer.
The pendulum is about to swing the other way ! It will be simply irresistible for the wonks with a socialist outlook to try and turn General Motors into a social engineering experiment. It ran into trouble because it was autocratic and took too long to realise that what the buyers wanted was more compact, cleaner, fuel efficient cars. As a result, it fell victim to Europe, Japan and Korea - who made cars Americans wanted to drive !
It seems possible that General Motors will be pushed too far in the other direction. It is equally destructive to sales to try and push concepts that are way ahead of their time. If the socialist wonks demand cars that fail to hit the right chord with the public we will see car design by diktat - and whoever heard of a government department that ran as a model of efficiency ?
A classic icon has passed ! What the future holds remains a mystery !
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