If you're like me, you remember that General Motors was saying that they were going to build a new car company from the ground up to compete with the Japanese. Roger Smith was the guy.
We in the computer business remember Roger Smith because he was the GM chair who understood the value of IT in the corporate world. He also recognized that GM stock was in the trash and so purchased Hughes Aerospace and created the GM E class stock which enabled Ross Perot's EDS. Smith, along with Citibank's Walter Wriston, was one of the real champions of the beginnings of the industry in which I now work - corporate IT management consulting. (Anybody out there from Centrobe?)
I've been listening to economists and one of them said that GM is one of the greatest money losing companies in American history. I think the phrase he used was 'capital destruction'. Saturn never escaped its orbit. So when I hear stories about how the UAW broke GM, I nod. But that can't be the whole story. Saturn was the brand new startup that bragged about its labor relations and the simplicity therein. But it obviously didn't do well enough to live on its own. Or did Saturn become a cash cow on a short leash? I don't know, and nobody is saying. But the presumption that a cash infusion or even a breakup and restart of GM might be the solution - well, I'm skeptical.
I suppose that I am globalist enough to not really care that my car is made by an American company. I've only owned one, a 1971 Ford Galaxie Custom out of all my cars. I can deal with watching a Korean TV and even a Chinese laptop.
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