 
Patrick
Member
Username: Patrick
Post Number: 4886
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Monday, September 03, 2007 - 9:44 pm: |    |
This can be regarded as a Detroit thread:
Today at a get together I had an interesting conversation with a retired Ivy League economics teacher. He was a friend of a cousin but I didn’t think too much of the guy at first. So we started talking and he made an interesting observation about General Motors. He was telling me that General Motors, at its height, was the most powerful and influential corporation in the history of the world.
He made some interesting comparisons with other companies such as Toyota, Standard Oil and Wal Mart. I never fully understood the full grasp General Motors had politically, culturally, and economically until today. I mean, I always looked at GM as a formidable company created by Billy Durant and Alfred p. Sloan. I never realized the full clout GM once had.
What is your opinion on this? |
Ffdfd
Member
Username: Ffdfd
Post Number: 170
Registered: 09-2006
| | Posted on Monday, September 03, 2007 - 9:55 pm: | |
Charles Wilson famously said: What's good for GM is good for America. I wish that were still the case. |
Burnsie
Member
Username: Burnsie
Post Number: 1139
Registered: 11-2003
| | Posted on Monday, September 03, 2007 - 10:00 pm: | |
A good case can be made for that. GM had HUGE influence not only on the vehicles people bought, but in shaping national transportation policy, which affected to a large extent what our landscape and way of life is today. It also once had a formidable defense systems division, very active in the Cold War.
There are certainly other contenders. For example, AT&T in the Bell System era employed the most people of any company in the US and probably the world. It also designed, built, and paid for out of its own pocket the first communications satellite-- Telstar-- in 1962. |
Detroit313
Member
Username: Detroit313
Post Number: 469
Registered: 02-2006
| | Posted on Monday, September 03, 2007 - 11:32 pm: | |
Yeah AT&T was a monster in its day.
Still think GM takes the cake. I mean look at GMAC. They financed the Time Warner building in New York.
GM still has power!
<313> |
Detroit313
Member
Username: Detroit313
Post Number: 470
Registered: 02-2006
| | Posted on Monday, September 03, 2007 - 11:34 pm: | |
Also financed the building of the Empire State Build.
<313> |
Detroit313
Member
Username: Detroit313
Post Number: 471
Registered: 02-2006
| | Posted on Monday, September 03, 2007 - 11:43 pm: | |
Lots of this are coming to mind now, sorry for the multiple post.
But if you are to compare any company to GM,(with the exception of Ford and Chrysler)
No company can BUILD or infuse money, power, culture into a city like GM.
Take Spring Hill, TN for example:
Before GM built the Saturn plant it was just a back road from Nashville to Memphis. Today they have a $50,000,000 high school, new town hall, ect, ect.
Not only has the new wealth effected Spring Hill, But it has made Southern Nashville a very wealth area. Comparable to a middle class Detroit Suburb.
<313> |
Lefty2
Member
Username: Lefty2
Post Number: 79
Registered: 07-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 04, 2007 - 2:08 am: | |
The democrats stopped GM's influence in the 70's because they were too powerful! Well look what's happened now. On the one hand, the Democrats want UAW votes, on the other hand they want to prohibit manufacturers expansion on several levels.
Except when they shift jobs outside the US, and allow cheap imports in the US without equal exports into other countries. What's up with that? Hypocrisy? |
Karl
Member
Username: Karl
Post Number: 9752
Registered: 09-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 04, 2007 - 2:31 am: | |
As I've said on another thread, IMO there is no industry in the history of man that has made so many people so wealthy, changed so many lives, lasted as long and changed the world as much as the auto industry - and GM has been the largest and most integral part, leading the way. |
Kaptansolo
Member
Username: Kaptansolo
Post Number: 204
Registered: 07-2007
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 04, 2007 - 2:51 am: | |
Detroit313
"Before GM built the Saturn plant it was just a back road from Nashville to Memphis. Today they have a $50,000,000 high school, new town hall, ect, ect."
Thank you for showing an example of how GM power can change the landscape of an area. Then add in Ford and Chrysler
If we use simple math, it should be a no brainer what happens to an area when GM leaves.
Detroit, Michigan today |
3rdworldcity
Member
Username: 3rdworldcity
Post Number: 902
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 04, 2007 - 9:32 pm: | |
$50,000,000 high school? Who do they think they are, Bloomfield Hills? (I don't think the Spring Hill folks are nearly that dumb.) |
321brian
Member
Username: 321brian
Post Number: 418
Registered: 02-2006
| | Posted on Tuesday, September 04, 2007 - 10:55 pm: | |
$50,000,000. They got off cheap. Cass Tech cost $115,000,000.
I'll bet the Spring Hill school even has a working football field. |
3rdworldcity
Member
Username: 3rdworldcity
Post Number: 903
Registered: 01-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 - 8:32 am: | |
$115,000,000 for Cass Tech? And It doesn't even work? Wow.
Until this city demands a functioning, well - run school system it will remain doomed. Ten more sports stadiums won't help resurrect it a bit, nor will some kind of Quicken presence here do it. Casinos won't do it. First things first. Remove the cancer.
Let's put the Spring Hill School Board in charge of the DPS as a first step. |
Gannon
Member
Username: Gannon
Post Number: 9976
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 - 8:41 am: | |
They are going to hate the commute. |
Rfban
Member
Username: Rfban
Post Number: 185
Registered: 02-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 - 8:43 am: | |
^^^^ Flint is a better example I think, At least GM is still in the city. |
Cambrian
Member
Username: Cambrian
Post Number: 1567
Registered: 08-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 - 10:03 am: | |
GM is a unique study. Many successful conglomerates in our history AT&T, Standard Oil, were busted up by the Gov't. GM however looked at itself and decided on its own that it was too big, and that shrinking, closing factories, losing control of suppliers, giving up market share, making legacy platforms for vehicles that never change and always look the same and closing dealers would make them a more profitable company. And by looking at where they are headed, you can see how well that thinking has benefitted them. |
_sj_
Member
Username: _sj_
Post Number: 2082
Registered: 12-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 - 10:46 am: | |
You also have to look at the other side of the equation. They had grown as large as they could in the current design and could not sustain or improve their market share.
Their ideas failed, but doing nothing would have encountered the same situation. |
Cambrian
Member
Username: Cambrian
Post Number: 1568
Registered: 08-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, September 05, 2007 - 1:09 pm: | |
It's sad, at one time GM produced what no one else could ever dream of. Chasing competition who offers low cost over value is killing them. 50 years ago GM's power and influence successfully quashed any competition, funny how things have changed for them. However it was nice to see that they slapped down Toyota for August Sales in the US last month. |