Will the GM bankruptcy effect you?

[circlelake]

Mismanagement, Maybe
We have all heard about the broom pusher making 75,000 year at GM.

How would you like to develop cars to produce certain gas mileage with different types of gas for practically every state.

 

[300UGUY]

Wow.. I mean WOW. Your benefits are incredible.

Still.

Don't go into IT.

I have been through three mega-mergers. Each time my benefits eroded.

I lost my Pension. Lost retirement medical coverage, lost both stock options and employee purchase plans, lost my 401k and took salary cuts. In fact my take home peaked in 2004 and has come down each year since. My medical costs, "benefits" have skyrocketed over the past few years. Nothing is covered 100 percent.

I am worth more dead than alive. Incredible. It is still about wall street and beating expectations. After all the business of America is business...

I am doing ok, but the health care thing bothers me. Our plan now doesn't pay for office visits, ( the last one was $160 ) and ER visits are $100 deductible. The VEBA ( voluntary employee benifits administration ) is now responsible for my health care. It doesn't have much money, so I expect the health care to get worse. I understand the thing about IT. One of my bil's was in IT, for a bank. Started right outa college. 15 years in, bank got bought out, he got axed. In the last 10 years, he has been thru 3 more takeovers, lost his job each time. He has a degree and is bagging groceries. At one point ealy this year, out of 4 working age males in my wife's family, the only one working was the dentist. And his biz has slowed down some.

 

[300UGUY]

I am sorry to hear about your plight. However, you mentioned the problem. You retired because you got a good compensation to quit early and the pension plan was so good it seemed reasonable. This practice is not financially sustainable. I am 49 but there is no way I would consider retirement until 65 or later unless forced to by health concerns.

My BIL is a cop in a small town. He knows of many cops in some states (Calif, and NY for example) and larger cities get pension plans that provide all of the existing benefits plus 90% of their salary in their pensions. They can opt for full pension after 20-25 years of service. Many will "retire" take another cop postion in a different state, and start over again with another salary and pension - while still getting the prior benefits and income. The same is true for many Firefighters. It is no wonder companies and governments are in financial trouble.

I have to go back to work, the plant closing just made it pretty unpalatable to stay at GM. GM's biggest problem is the number of retirees - maybe as much as 9 or 10 for every current employee. As far as the public employees, I know a couple of police officers, and they get 50% after 25 years, 80% after 30 years. Probably changes by area. You kinda want a lot of young cops, chasing down the perps isn't for a old man.

 

[smfcpacfp]

I cashed in a lot of GM Card $$'s last year when I bought the '08 Yukon XL. Slowly building back up but I may switch to a Ford card if the situation looks bleak at GM under Obama's management team.

ford used to have a card plan, but they dropped it after a year.

 

[toy]

A janitor that makes 75000 dollars a year and lives in a high priced economy where it takes 75000 dollars a year to have a decent life isn't making too much money. A man that works in a country that makes pennies on the hour but can buy what he needs to live decent according to the living standards there , he is not making too much nor is he making too little. When the man that works for pennies on the hour and his products are sold in the country where the average worker there makes 75000 dollars a year. The man that is exploiting this situation is going to make a lot of money because he can undersell his high cost competitor just enough to put the high cost worker out of work. Eventually in this type of enviorment the country that has a high cost of living will collapse. The citizens of this country will bit and devour one another blaming each other for the failure of the country but the real culprits won't have as much as a harsh word spoken to them, instead these culprits will find praise because of their wealth.

 

[rcrcomputing]

A janitor that makes 75000 dollars a year and lives in a high priced economy where it takes 75000 dollars a year to have a decent life isn't making too much money. A man that works in a country that makes pennies on the hour but can buy what he needs to live decent according to the living standards there , he is not making too much nor is he making too little. When the man that works for pennies on the hour and his products are sold in the country where the average worker there makes 75000 dollars a year. The man that is exploiting this situation is going to make a lot of money because he can undersell his high cost competitor just enough to put the high cost worker out of work. Eventually in this type of enviorment the country that has a high cost of living will collapse. The citizens of this country will bit and devour one another blaming each other for the failure of the country but the real culprits won't have as much as a harsh word spoken to them, instead these culprits will find praise because of their wealth.

And to think this has gone on for 50-100 years too... And we STILL are a rich/powerfull nation. How have we ever managed to do it?
Sorry, I call BS. Put credit where credit is due. GM should go under just as my company would do if it was poorly managed. Now we have "government motors". I guess that's really fair to Ford to compete against a government subsidized company. If GM were let to fail, ford would probably have to higher more workers as sales increased.. It's called FREE MARKET ECONOMY, which has served us very well for hundreds of years and in fact has been the most successful experiment to date in human history!

 

[rcrcomputing]

Yep, that's what Rush claims.

Rush was right!

 

[toy]

And to think this has gone on for 50-100 years too... And we STILL are a rich/powerfull nation. How have we ever managed to do it?
Sorry, I call BS. Put credit where credit is due. GM should go under just as my company would do if it was poorly managed. Now we have "government motors". I guess that's really fair to Ford to compete against a government subsidized company. If GM were let to fail, ford would probably have to higher more workers as sales increased.. It's called FREE MARKET ECONOMY, which has served us very well for hundreds of years and in fact has been the most successful experiment to date in human history!

I never said that these companies like gm were well managed companies, to the contrary I believe they are a calculating company for self interests. I believe the money that was given to these companies , especially the wall street gang went out of this country faster than any giant size vacum could have possibly picked it up. If you haven't noticed we are entering into a period of deflation which is very painful especially for that 75000 dollar worker that bought the house according to his high pay and now his pay is probably going to get slashed 35 to 40 % before it is over and everybody is saying that he bought more house than he can afford, and they will say that until it happens to them and then they will change their mind. Yes a poorly run company should suffer consequences and if it was a mere resturant where they never kept the place clean the workers looked skaggy never washing their hands they will as they should go out of business. Also larger businesses should suffer the same fate but when it comes to these huge conglomerant companies that their failure would cause such hardships and even risk the security of our nation, what bugs me is where were the watchers ? Where were the ones that were entrusted to oversee that business was being done in an honest and upright manner using sound business practices? Where were the ones that supposed to had the best interests in the well being of our country? They were all or mostly on the pay roll of these big conglomerants. Two to three years before the mortgage melt down all you could here was these low mortgage deals in our nations capitol and surrounding area their flyers were posted everywhere and if you parked your car for very long you would get one of their fliers under your windsheild wiper. This thing didn't just happen overnight, it's been a long time in the making, and now its here. After this we will have super inflation so it is going to take a long time. If you have a family financial crisis what do you do , do you continue to go out and be the big spender that got you in this mess or do you try to figure a way out of it $400,000 bathroom remodel ,$485 ,000 retreat to get what ever it is they they get rubbed for that price, making our entire financial system a pyramid scheme. In my opinion they should be cooling their jets in jail, but I am not complaining about some man working to support his family keeping a roof over their heads food on their table clothes on their back shoes on their feet and yes having a car a phone and occasionally going on vacation, and yes having a company paid hospital card I don't complain about that, I bet all of you want the same thing for your families also. I have heard some say let him pay for his own health care, well where do you think he is going to get that money to pay for it, it will come from the company that he works for whether he pays for it or the company has a group health care program for their employees that they can get cheaper supposedly rates for. As you called my other post BS many others might feel the same way and that is ok, just my opinion. We are seeing a way of life disappear before our eyes. Just something that I have noticed when I was young the young complained about paying into social security, a lot of them did, but when they start turning 62 you don't hear them complain anymore, I wonder why.

 

[jinjimbob]

Government health care would fix a lot of the problems in this country, NOT insurance, actual health care.

BUT people don't want to hear that, even though 66% of bankruptcies in this country are from health problems.

The government provides, police, fire, education to most people and health to a LOT of US people . . the active armed forces.

 

[LMTC]

Government health care would fix a lot of the problems in this country, NOT insurance, actual health care.

BUT people don't want to hear that, even though 66% of bankruptcies in this country are from health problems.

The government provides, police, fire, education to most people and health to a LOT of US people . . the active armed forces.

NOT the federal government....at least not most police & fire, and if you like the current state of public education in this country, then I suppose you'd like government health care. Personally I want neither.

And when you have time, please do tell how government health care would fix a lot of the problems in this country. Perhaps start with which specific problems it would fix, with some good documentation as to how it would fix them. Would it be really good.......like the quality & availability of VA health care over the past 35 years or so?