Not to go down that path again, but sure the insurance companies are interested in safety. But I don’t think State Farm is interested in electric cars or eliminating gasoline. Those folks are the crooks and the special interest groups making millions off of inside information. Saw an interview last night on the perfect market timing of members of Congress with inside information on legislation and government contract awards. Fire your financial consultants and simply buy what they buy. Millions to be made in weeks. Fools we are.
If elected representatives get caught doing this they will face fines or worse. It’s even publicly tracked. Why would they do something that they are guaranteed to get caught doing?
And who exactly would be doing the investigation and bringing charges? How does one amass millions on a couple hundred thousand dollar annual public salary?
Some weeks ago a black rock consultant said that Congress people are the cheapest. Some can be bought for as little as $10,000. He thought it was a private conversation. So a huge clean up required in both aisles if we ever hope to right the ship.
GM CEO Mary Barra’s 2022 compensation: $28,979,570
Tavares became CEO in 2021 with Fiat Chrysler merged with Fiat to create Stellantis. His 2022 salary was $24.8 million , according to the Detroit Free Press, which is 365 times greater than the average employee.
But amounts to about $150 per employee so not a great deal even though it sounds like a lot. Do I think she is doing a great jo though? No. I think she’ll destroy the place more than has already done.
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+1
This is the topic of the book “Where are the Customer’s Yachts?”
“What Schwed has done is capture fully in deceptively clean language the lunacy at the heart of the investment business”
So if the GM CEO isn’t entitled to a $40 milliom salarary bump due to UInion cutbacks why aren’t the workers cutbacks, who made it possible entitled to a share?
Tie the workers compensation to Execuitives/Stochholders compensation and you’ll see a muc more rational resuilt.
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The rational for super-high CEO compensation is usually that the CEO has Washington DC contacts, and these folks seem more than happy to pass laws beneficial to the company in return for campaign donations, very helpful to the business’s bottom line. If that’s what makes the super-high CEO compensation sensible, the solution is to remove the "I’ll give you a campaign donation, and some day hopefully you’ll do somethng for me … wink wink … " situation. How to do that seems to be the problem. The CEO’s and the majority of the politicos believe they’d lose more than they gained if that happened.
This is a very similar situation that occurred in the last part of the Roman Empire; some historians say it was the main cause of the Empire’s collapse.
Today’s Boston Globe (9.24.23, page 1) points out that is a problem the strikers are worried about, that it could create a divide in their support. Folks may support the strikers, but also want more electric cars, which presumably the workers don’t want.
Professor nobles points out that the fall of the Roman Empire was not a fall at all but rather a gradual change. At any rate why our founders studied failed so called democracies and developed the republic instead. Worries revealed in the federalist writings and later de Tocqueville pointed out the dangers we are now facing.
A 40% increase over the next 4 years. I think the UAW worker’s demands will cause car prices to increase beyond a reasonable level. The car factories will relocate out of the USA.
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A lot of domestic-namebrand vehicles are ALREADY being built in Mexico
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Some new car buyers believe their purchasing decisions should be influenced by their patriotism, & will go out of their way to buy a car manufactured in the USA. Some of those may also go another step, and only buy a car manufactured in states that have policies which the new car buyer agrees with. New car buyers have a lot of influence.
Not the same as before! Now there are none-union automakers, more automation, imports, millions of immigrants looking for employment.
And yet the executives saw significantly higher pay raises. Some say as high as 40%.
Actually, profit in this type of company is extremely good.
The auto industry has always been a tough negotiating forum for workers. Other industries have a better job at it. The auto industry sees these negotiations as adversarial. It’s always a struggle. My brother-in-law was a Chryco plant manager in Detroit. He wanted to take a more practical approach with negotiations, but corporate wanted nothing to do with it. Their first stand is to give them NOTHING and let them beg. They don’t want to give an inch, even if they are making record profits. The UAW is just as ruthless.
UAW gave up many concessions few years ago. When profits were back up, those concessions were never offered back.
Inflation of the 80’s isn’t the same as now. There are lot of other economic factors to consider.
My first house was 12.875% and we jumped at that. A few years earlier, it was. 18%. We did our first refinance 3 years later at 7%. Then 3 years later it dropped to 4%. Never get an adjustable mortgage. Those are the worse.
I haven’t looked at all the demands of the UAW…some seem out of wack.
And Toyota seems to pay more for their factory workers without a union. Executives at Toyota are significantly lower than GM’s.
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I can tell you that the chances of me ever buying a new car again are somewhere between “slim” and “none”. At this point, the cars I really want are all approximately 25-30 years old. I have never owned a Ford, but earlier this week, someone posted a well-preserved 1990 Tempo on our local Craigslist. I considered buying it, but I don’t really need another car, and don’t want to park too many cars on my property and irritate my neighbors. It sold, so I guess someone else saw the value.
Yes, and the executive job market is different in the US than Japan or Europe. That’s what it costs.
The UAW demands are a 40% wage increase and a 32 hour workweek. Considering inflation they (and every other wage earner) has lost almost 20% of the value of their wages, 40% seems excessive. Not to mention the lost value of the assets used to build the cars working 4 days a week…which I doubt will happen at most plants. That 4 day workweek either means another 50% bump in overtime pay for Friday and/or low wage tier workers hired to fill those spots.
I agree with that. Consider the investor and bankers point of view. A 6% return is very poor. Apple cranks out a 25-30% profit margin. Much better investment than an old industry like car building.
As does the UAW… its just a great big pi$$ing match. My Delco division was directly responsible for Delphi being spun off from GM. The UAW struck our brake plant and shut down 27 or 28 GM plants in less than a week and they had a lock on all new brake business. GM solved that and cut us loose.
Not as high but inflation still erodes the value of your paycheck and that is really all the UAW understands and it is what they take to the table. Well, that and executive pay.
Our first and second house loans were adjustable rate. We bought in on the inflation down slope so it definitely saved us money without having to regularly refinance.
And Slim is out to lunch. 
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Let’s try this: forget the wage and benefits increases completely. Instead, turn the companies into employee-owned companies with the number of shares awarded to each employee based on seniority. Have a 55 - 60% employee representation on the board of directors and limit executive pay to 25X the lowest worker’s salary. Make the unions redundant by creating management boards consisting of both managers and workers dedicated to kaizen and required to be involved in any decision process at all levels of the company. Make stock shares and dividends 25% of annual compensation for every employee.
I don’t disagree that having employees have a stake in the actual profitability of a company is a good thing and throws a monkey wrench into those theories of 150 years ago, but I dought the union would even discuss it. The union would lose power and control. Folks that invest in companies with their cold hard cash take a risk that they will lose it all. They also then have the chance to gain from their risk. Hourly employees have no risk and no skin in the game so don’t qualify to reap rewards from risk.
I guess you just have to go back to the early days of the 1900s and the conditions that helped unions develop in the first place. But strong nation wide unions are having the Sam ill effects as strong centralized government. Maybe break them up and pay according to individual plant productivity. This arrangement is not working though for the nation or the industry or the line workers. Remember the break up of bell telephone and the positive effects that had?
Wow 
I believe that’s the first time I heard of someone having nostalgic feelings about a Ford Tempo 
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