Throw in trade restructuring. If not then any new version of GM will just suffer the same injustices the current incarnation has.
Japan has managed to lower the value of the Yen vs the Dollar by 12% this year alone. We need some sort of strategy to deal with those types of things.
Healthcare needs to be dealt with too. How can GM ever compete if the Japanese Government pays healthcare for Toyota, Honda, etc. workers? Dito Germany for BMW, Mercedes……
We don’t want GM walking out of the ER nice and healthy only to be hit by the same truck.[/quote]
The yen is still stronger than it was for most of 2008.
Scarlet, if Toyota and Honda etc. don’t have to bear the costs of health care for their workers, then who is paying for that health care?
If it’s the Japanese government, then does that mean it’s cost-free to the people of Japan? Of course not. The cost of the health care for all the people of Japan is borne by the people (taxpayers) of Japan. That includes Toyota and its workers, and it suppliers and their workers, etc. If Toyota and its workers pay $5,000 per worker in taxes to the government for health care for those workers, that has the same long-term economic impact on Toyota and its workers as a direct payment of $5,000 from the company to the health care providers.
Why is it so hard for people to understand that government, or insurance, or any other delivery mechanism for health care, does not provide a free lunch. THERE IS NO FREE LUNCH. The only thing that will help reduce the burden of health care on our pockets and competitiveness is reducing how much we spend on it, not changing who spends it.
Sorry to be brutal, Scarlet, but sometimes I wish that every voter was required to meet economic literacy tests. We can no longer afford the luxury of making big decisions on our economy based on uninformed populism.
