Inflation

[chickened]

I would agree with all but the bailout of GM sometimes you have to fall down to look up. We will see how long the upward progress will last, if someone loaned me a bunch of money I could make a bundle investing it also. The problem with GM still exist and they will continue to exist as long as the thier cost to produce cars is higher than the competition. Nobody should make 35.00 an hour on an assembly line putting the ashtray in the holder or putting the gas cap on. I made the mistake of buying a new Chevy and I can tell you it is JUNK my Ford is a 98 ranger with 200k and has been problem free the new chevy 1/2 ton is a junker nothing but problems everything wears out in half the time. Ford refused the bailout you know.

 

[Dunkopf]

Actually Ford didn't ask for a bail out. Ford got a huge loan a while earlier because they were getting ready to go under at the time. They got the loan while investors were still willing to invest in them. They then made some changes to get turned around. GM and Chrysler were in better shape than Ford at the time Ford got their loan. They should have gotten a loan too, but didn't need it at the time. Instead they both waited until the credit market dried up before they went begging with hat in hand. Ford did it while there was still money available.

Naturally there was more than 48 hours between the time Ford got their bailout loan and GM got theirs. So the American public didn't remember that a few news cycles before, Ford had the same headlines about them. They benefited greatly from the fact that American history is only accurate for 48 hours. After that it becomes whatever people can remember or are told.

I've never cared too much for Ford products. The Focus and the other small car. Not Fiesta but some other F word. They pulled Ford out of the fire. Good engineering. Not much to look at but well engineered. Ford 1/2 tons are the best selling truck out there with Chevy close behind and Dodge a far 3rd behind that,

They actually have robots that do most of the redundant work now. It's the health care cost that are driving prices up so much on cars and making American labor too expensive. The unions had a good health care package. All the other countries that manufacture cars except Mexico have national health care. That's why they can compete so well against us. Their wages aren't that much lower.

 

[chickened]

I know what you mean, ever been to Tijuana and seen the car factories? there are lines of people wanting jobs at 50.00 a day or it was that way in the 80's? I thought Ford refused it partly because of the pending restrictions and control they would have been under if they took it? GM has always been part of America and GM and the Government are almost synonymous as I believe they were military contractors and even had Ford building GM's at one time so it is really fitting that the government owns 51% of them at least officially, I think? What bothers me is why they cannot make it by themselves after all most businesses play by the same rules and some should fail, it makes them smarter next time, "we learn by our mistakes" I mean if they feel no pain then they really have not learned anything and sometimes people lose jobs, I have.

 

[Dunkopf]

GM and Chrysler were both behind the 8 ball. Ford knew it was only a matter of time before they went under. They borrowed billions from lenders and invested it in research and assembly line improvements and came up with the Focus and Fusion. GM finally came out with the current version of the Impala and the Volt. Those items are saving them. I know Chrysler took a bail out but haven't heard much about them.

I'm pretty sure that the fed government owns quite a bit less than 51% now. It's good they did the 51% thing because they had too many tax payer dollars on the line to leave it to the people that were running it in the ground. If they go in the ditch again and Ford stays out of the ditch than the pundits will be justified in their criticism. If they stay afloat and pay back all they owe to us then the pundits should admit they were wrong ( fat chance of that). Six million more people on unemployment may have been just a little too much for the country to handle. We are teetering on the edge right now as it is. A conservative in office would have done the same thing as Obama did on GM. Yes he would have gotten the same criticism from the minority party. All the losers regardless of affiliation always criticize the winner. Too bad they don't teach sportsmanship to politicians.

 

[aprophet]

Quote:
A lot of us are not screwed because we ignore the gov and participate in the black market if they did not have so many stupid regs inhibiting business they would not have such a large "black market " ROFL the gov has nothing to do with the success or failure of the individual I feel sorry for the fools who have been "played " into believing this. There are those of us who thrive even when the economy stinks it is not the gov who is thriving us we thrive in spite of the gov MORONS!!! you want a good book read the richest man in Babylon "Fortune favors the bold "

that and the harder I work the " luckier "I get ROFL

Very true. Without the gov 98% of would be screwed by the unregulated business practices. Look at what happened with Wall Street. They drop the stupid regs as you call them and 10 years later the country is ready to collapse. Then the crooks that took us to the brink walk away three fold richer than they were before. I pity the fool that buys what the rich keep telling them about how regs need to be dropped. There are a lot of regs that need to be revised or dropped. Regs are still a very important part of a functioning society though.

fortunately the black market has no such regs so if they are a such an important part why does the BM continue to function so well in their absence LOL



Yes fortune favors the me first screw everyone else people. No doubt about it

when one is practicing this it is hard for the crooks on wall st to screw them LOLOL live and learn

.

only those who were involved with wall street suffered from all of this. not everyone is involved with wall street . the house ALWAYS WINS LOLLOLOL you want to thrive when the economy is bad deal in necessities it is that easy LOLOLOL the one exception to this is during prohibition fortunes were made in dealing in contraband goods too not really necessities but things that folks thought they needed

 

[Dunkopf]

That's a pretty easy one to figure out prophet. Those that cheat do better than those that don't. Eventually some of the cheaters get caught. If I wanted to live outside the law I could make better money too. I get the impression you have minimum exposure or you wouldn't be bragging about it. Do you sell raw milk or something that you'll go away for many years for. Or do you sell really dangerous stuff like marijuana? Here in Colorado medicinal marijuana is legal and the people selling it are getting rich. Not only that but the state and cities are making a lot off of it. Yep it's even regulated. Imagine that.

We all pay for Wall Street and the lack of regulation. Right around 800 billion dollars. We are also paying for the deregulation of the mortgage industry. Even people that sell on the black market and bypass their responsibilities as citizens through tax dodging are paying through higher prices caused by deregulation.

 

[Q9]

Seriously, Dunkopf? You think there's a LACK of regulation? That there's not enough?

Good gosh, you are truly beyond hope if you think that.

Tell me, do you REALLY think that the government is not meddling ENOUGH?! I want to point out a pattern over the past century - when the government gets more involved, things SLOW DOWN. The economy does not function as well. Poverty levels remain the same rather than dropping. The economy starts doing the annoying ups and downs referred to as the business cycle. Companies that shouldn't make it end up surviving, when their resources could have been better used by others.

I want you to name me a true monopoly. Do it. A true monopoly is a single company with no competition.

Show me one, and I will show you a company with government help.

 

[aprophet]

Quote:

 

[chickened]

Obama was called the Food Stamp president today. I found this excerpt It says later in the article that most states have doubled and some tripled in the last two years. Anyone surprised? The budget is 60 billion for the program.


A pop quiz: How many Americans are on food stamps? How many children in the United States are on food stamps? For how many people in the United States are food stamps their only means of regular financial support?

An article from Saturday’s New York Times gives the surprising (to me, at least) answers: One in eight Americans rely on food stamps; one in four children in the United States rely on food stamps; one in 50 Americans live on nothing but food stamps.

 

[debilorrah]

Look at what I started so inncocently complaining about prices....