December 7th, 2008 → 11:43 pm @ MReed // No Comments
General Motors and the other big car companies are having some serious problems. They say that they need a bailout from the government, just as the banks did, and that bankruptcy wouldn’t be an option for them. GM especially insists that bankruptcy isn’t a viable option because it would erode consumer confidence even further.
GM believes that consumers need to feel like they can buy cars and trucks from a company that isn’t going to close up or go away, but many car dealers have already closed all across the country. It’s important, though, for GM and other car makers to look at the way that they are doing business now, because they often provide perks that could be done away with. Laid-off employees, for example, typically draw 90% of their pay for doing nothing, and this is one of the areas that GM is looking into for cost-cutting measures.
The biggest of the three automakers have also stopped flying their private jets and gotten much more serious about how much money they need and what it’s for, than they were in past bailout talks.
Tags: bailout, Bankruptcy, GM