Quote:
Originally Posted by ss/rs-matt
I know, I know he is a polarizing person but he did fight for the working man in 1989 "Roger and me" film. He is still banned from entering GMs building in detroit for calling them out on laying off American workers. He grew up in detroit and his dad worked the assembly line at GM. Its a good film and should be watched with an open mind.
Fact is GM is a corporation and like most corporations they don't care about the working man, they care about wall street, period. We all bought camaros and in doing so helped the Canadian worker and lined the pockets of the top 1% here in the US.
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I don't even know where to start with this one......
1. - he didn't do this for the working man - don't kid yourself. Good film? I won't change your mind......but it's pretty much like any M.M. film - full of half-truths and outright fabrications.
2. - he did not grow up in Detroit - he grew up in Davison, MI - an upscale community south of Flint, MI. I suspect he'd love for everyone to think he's just "one of the guys" and an "everyday kinda guy" -- (I've seen him in operation on a Northwest Airlines flight - trust me, your opinion of him would change in a heartbeat.....) He worked for GM for one day on the assembly line - and then quit.
3. I'm a working man. I work 7 days a week. I believe GM cares about me. That said - GM and every other publicly traded company needs to worry about wall street -- just as you, if you have a 401K or pension plan need to -
4. Yes - you helped a Canadian worker - just as Canadians buying GM cars built in the U.S. help American workers. There are no trade barriers with Canada - UNLIKE trade barriers that have been put in place by the E.U., Japan, Korea, China -- the list goes on..........
5. -- and you are wrong about the 1 percent.
The remark about laying off American workers reminds me of a headline that a local paper ran in Westchester County, New York when we announced that the Tarrytown Plant would be closing: "GM Abandons Westchester County!"
......at the time, over 70% of the cars and trucks purchased by the people living in Westchester County were foreign cars -- so - who abandoned who? Is GM and Chrysler and Ford supposed to continue to build cars that people are not buying and let them rot in a field? I realize this is a simplistic example -- but it certainly is food for thought.
Another tidbit: Honda is curtailing their shipments to the U.S. from Japan - why? Because it costs too much money to do so.......with the manipulation of the Yen vs Dollar.......
I don't mean to belittle you - but things are never as simple as they seem - and it seems in vogue to beat up Corporate America (...or America, for that matter) -- and it's half-truths and misleading information that only makes it worse.