Dump General Motors From the Dow?

After re-reading the comments above I think I must sound the alarm... America.. the country has been invaded, the enemy is on the doorsteps,the only recourse is to immediately go out and buy a Ford or Chevy.

To N. Siegal: Thanks for understanding that car manufacturers build what people want to buy and leave on dealers' lots what they don't want to buy. Awfully hard for them to determine next spring's hot product when they don't control environmental factors such as fuel prices, interest rates, etc.And since dealers pay the interest on the inventory stocked, we don't want to stock stuff that isn't selling either. That's why our reps made us take Focuses last fall which weren't selling if we wanted to get trucks which were. To Chirs: Front wheel drives were chosen not for repairability (or lack of) but as a response to lighten cars up to meet Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards. Lighter cars do get better fuel economy. That's why the Fiesta when it goes on sale here won't get what it does in Europe. Must make it heavier to carry the structure to meet US collision safety standards. To everyone else: We call the current bailout process the "UAW bailout" program, not the "Big 3 bailout" program. We can funnel money forever into those black holes and until one fails and reorganizes, they will all continue to be structurally flawed enterprises. And as far as being a dealer is concerned, recognize that on the same MSRP vehicle comparing it to an import, the import dealer will made a heck of a lot more than we will. There are some models in our domestic product line that if we sell for full sticker, we still make less than $500 on from "box" invoice so maybe that gives you guys insight into the cost disadvantage the Big 3 have. We dealers have (and probably will continue) to hide it for them as the manufacturers chop our margins to hold minor MSRP price increases.

It is time to do what should have been done long ago...LET THEM DIE! What is good for GM IS NOT good for America. It is more than past time for Americans to learn HARD LESSONS...THEY ARE NOT OWED A LIVING! If we need to have soup kitchens again, then SO BET IT! Time for Americans to reap what they have sown. If you do not live WELL BELOW your means, then you DESERVE what is coming. LET THEM DIE!

Interesting comments - the reality is that Unions have demanded more ‘milk’ from an empty bottle for so many years that reality has finally arrived at their door - and with the recent election results they are going back to what has worked in the past, i.e. closed door meetings with Congress - and we can expect to see the 'auto States' continue to fall behind the rest of the United States in terms of unemployment figures - at some point the price of successful 'closed door meetings' will be open to the American public and they will see that it is time to give GM its final reality - “it is no longer “what is good for GM is good for America” - which has been proven through the decline in Union membership - except for those who have been elected to Congress.

Good idea, GM no longer represents an overall indicator of the broad market, therefore a replacement would be in order. Larry Clockwant

I've got a better idea. Whenever any Dow Indu component stock goes down, just replace it with one that is going up? Then the Dow Indu will always go up! We'll all be rich!

For all you bleeding hearts out there that think we should bail these losers out,think about these issues,How about the union job banks that pay workers up to 100% of there wage not to work? this has cost the big 3 billions! how about the health care package for the auto workers and the retired auto workers that buy their Viagra! this alone has cost GM 17 to 20 million a year and this is just GM!Or red ink Rick Wagner the CEO of GM and his 14 million plus yearly pay and he just got a bump on that in April of this year.That is more then the top 5 CEO's get at Toyota put together!This is all passed on to the person that is buying a car from one of the big three,the problem here is most of the car buying public dose not have a clue this is going on.Then add in all the other problems and 20 years of bad mistakes and you have the perfect storm,they are paying for all this big time now.I for one am done with buying a UAW built car,I can not see why we should support any of these Companys that need a tax payer hand out that will only prolong what we all know will happen in the end anyway,Just today the head of the auto workers union came out and said they will not give any thing back to the auto Companys,say what? So I should just suck it it and be a good American and buy a car from one of these losers? Sorry

to take gm off the dow is useless because it may make that dow number look go to investors but underlining story is the big three got away from what they shouldof down along time ago . Build cars that the american people can afford and keep . I believe the big three screwed up when they started pushing front wheel cars. To them this was also a money maker because if you got into a accident your car was basically destroyed.They would either make their money on parts or hope your insurance company would right your car off pretty much forcing you to purchase a new car. An know the value the insurance company valued your car was not what it was purchased for.Think about the cars gm made back in the 60's yes gas guzzelers but if u hit something im sure that car was stiil driveable. What im tring to say in short listen to the american people they will tell you what kind off cars they want WAKE UP!

After reading all the above comments, I am quite concerned that a good number of peoples drinking water has been laced,I urge those people to take a sample to their local public health office.To those whose samples turn out positive,I recommend that you take your medication at the correct intervals

Dump all of them who are sticking out their hands for money they lost due to bad decision making. Why would someone get such a huge salary when they probably couldn't decide themselves out of a paper bag. Get rid of the good ol boy network with these executives, and if the majority stockholder wants to put his brother-in-law with a basket weaving degree in the CEO spot just to satiate his wife's nagging, let 'em drown in the bankruptcy.

It is time to dump GM from the Dow. YES end

It was fine to keep GM on the DOW up to now. Leave it there going forward. Thats another thing wrong with us as a country - we live by metrics only when their components are good. Let one go south and rather than fix the problem we take the simple minded route and remove it; rather than show that something is wrong! Hmmm, seems we do that with a lot of things lately.

Bert - I don't know what happened to my first post here. Fox Blogs tend to lose my posts and I can't figure out why. (They can't handle the truth.... haha) But people need to pay attention to what your saying. The idiot liberals like to blame Detroit when they dont' understand Detroit sells what people want. Same thing happened in the 70s. After the first oil spike in '73 big cars died. Then as oil tapered off a bit and people got used to it they took off again and Town Cars were huge in '79 until the second oil shock hit. Look at imports... they have all made their cars bigger with bigger engines.. more like American cars. The Europenas and Japanese now build V8s which they never did before. Look at a CRV or RAV4 which is much bigger than they were in the late 90s. The $25 billion to retool is BS. There is no special tooling needed to build fuel efficient cars. Its just a cover to make it more palatable to the public. Let the all 3 go bankrupt. They will keep operating. The shareholders will be wiped out which they should for not putting in place managers who would stand up to the unions. The retirees and current employees will take a big hit in benefits which were blackmailed out of the industry by the unions (too long to explain here). And the debt holders will take a hit. The people who should be penalized will be. The companies will keep operating and will emerge healthier for it. The public will keep buying what they want. I don't want the Marxist Haferican-American lying POS telling me what I can buy and not buy. After he takes care of his extended family created by his drunk bigamist scumbag father who blew a 1 in 100 million opportunity (Kenyan goes to Harvard in 1959). Then he can talk about taking care of the rest of us. We all have a choice... fight the idiot liberals and Obamas of this country or cede the country to them and move elsewhere. Whatcha going to do?

Well oil companies rely on automakers, especially the manufacturers of SUV and Trucks. How come they are not rushing to assist the industry that is important to them? It would be an absolute shame to watch these Icons of America go down the tubes.

You hear in the media all the time about the information age, but too many Americans don't realize what the heck that means. When we were in the "agrarian age", the most vital cog in the economic machine was the land to grow crops. We entered the "industrial age" when the most vital cog in the economic machine was the industrial plant that made the products. We entered the "information age" when the most vital cog in the economic machine became the mastery of information. This started in the 50's, and we officially entered the "information age" sometime in the 80's. What this means is that the most important economic jobs are related to processing information. Whether its tech giants like Microsoft and Google, or tech and data processing positions at other companies (energy, telecommunications, distribution, retail, marketing, you name it). The pharmaceutical industry is not just about laboratories; they hire tens of thousands of people to sort through data associated with clinical trials. Wal-mart is the largest company on the planet because of their mastery of information, and acting on that information to drive down costs. You don't have to be a tech person; you just have to collect, process, and analyze data. For all of you people worried about losing millions of automotive sector jobs; wake up. We are no longer in the industrial age. Someone from China, India, or Venezuela who can't speak English can work in a factory and make a product for 35 cents an hour (good pay relative to the cost of living). Having Americans do that same job for $35/hr is foolish. We need more people doing information sector jobs and less doing manufacturing, ESPECIALLY when the manufacturing jobs are overpriced like the UAW jobs. There is always room for specialty manufacturing in the USA, like a tool and die company I know which mastered product data to make parts that the Chinese can't get right. But mainstream automaton manufacturing jobs need to go bye bye. As far as tax payers picking up the burden if the auto sector goes bust, I don't know ONE SINGLE COMPANY that can hire enough good people. Between the big government laws that protect incompetent people from getting fired, labor lawyers and the legal system, as well as the growing entitlement mentality of the mainstream American worker, it is too hard to find good people. Unemployment needs to hit 10%...then people might start to wake up and begin working for their paychecks again. In Star Trek VI, when Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock are debating negotiating with the Klingon Empire to save them from environmental disaster, Mr. Spock's "liberal" comment was "Jim...they are dying.". Captain Kirk's Darwinian response was "Let them die". I say let the Big 3 die; its time we moved on.

Now that we have helped out the 'White Collar Guy's' on wall street we can now say the heck with the 'Blue Collar Guy'. Yes it's true that maybe a Union worker might make $30.00/hr. plus some fringes but he has to be on the job all the time. As for a Wall Street fellow they can do a lot of their work away from the job plus still get paid big bucks and receive a Bonus even when not doing a quality job. As for kicking GM off the Dow it would make since to do that as long you replace them Toyota after all it is a World Wide Economy.

Go ahead and dump GM it is a penny stock now and soon may not even make the s&p 500 cut either. I recommend JCI Johnson controls supplies both the usa and japanese car companies as well as residential and comercial heating and cooling we need to have some manufacturing still in the dow INDUSTRIALS

I say help out the Big 3. They were producing just what we wanted, SUVs and Trucks. Yes they should have been producing more fuel efficent cars and trucks but they gave us what we wanted. Their only mistake was having a short memory by not remembering what happened during the 1973 Fuel embargo. What did the American public do, run out and buy a forgien car. After the crisis what did we do but buy more American big cars and trucks (fickle huh). As far as the unions are concerned when the Big 3 had the corner on the market after WWII they could afford the good contracts. It was only when compeition from forgein car companies with no EPA or OHSA and paying pennies on the dollar for wages did things start to go wrong. Yes they've made mistakes but to put possibly 2 million people out of work could devastate our ecomony. As far as quality in concerned by 2000 GMC still looks and run great!

Want to talk about boosting the economy ? Nationwide ? If the big guys can keep a sloppy house and let finances go to ruin, and still get bundles of greenback to bail them out, then, why not "Average Joe" or Average Jane " ? The people that have bad credit scores, that don't have buying power ... give them credit amnesty for 120 days... then, they could be considered for new car purchases... and other purchases that would give the economy a shot in the arm ... keep the auto makers a little above water and give the average joe and average jane a chance to redeem themselves. While some of them would obviously not hold up their end of the bargain, I dare bet, that the majority would prove that confidence in them would be well worth the effort. It would give them an opportunity to improve their life styles, possibly by having better transportation, could commute to a better paying job, or school for creditation in a field that is a bit more stable, and long term, would reward the efforts to " forgive " them as opposed to the big wall street guys with deep pockets lined in dollars that are intended to " relieve " their burdens.

I enjoyed reading the diverse opinions of several Americans, all of whom bring a unique frame of reference to the discussion.I remember the slogan when I was growing up " As General Motors Goes, so goes the nation." Wow, we have gone through so much change to make a deeply held belief that a once highly revered icon has been reduced to such a disparaging footnote. My personal point of view is that we the American public share some of the blame and there is plenty to go around. Whatever happened to the pride we all once felt as typified by the greatest generation, our parents or grandparents? Self reliance, determination and an uncanny ability to transcend even the most difficult times...it is as if we are ashamed as once proclaiming to have those virtues. Ah, enter the media and the left.

Dear Liz, I am amazed at how quickly the news media has written off the auto industry. We will not only be dependent on foreign countries for energy, If the auto industry is driven into bankrupsty, we will be dependent on Japan, Germany, and Korea for jobs in this country. It is sad to see foreign countries taking over our country

Joe McFarley, you are a smart man and absolutely right. I don't think that there should be bailout money given to the automakers....but instead free trade should be stopped. Free trade is what has put the USA in the position it is in today. The USA have become a country of consumers, and no more manufacturing. We depend on other countries for everything, and look where we are today. Stop free trade and where are we? We are then given no choice but to start producing again, creates many jobs, and once again an independant nation. Until free trade is stopped, things will not get better. No foreign cars able to come into the USA, people have no choice but to buy AMERICAN MADE! Every car I've ever owned was a Ford, and they lasted just as long as my friends cars that were foreign....and mine rode better too....not like a lunchbox. My husband drives a GMC Pick up...and there is no foreign pick up made that could withstand the abuse that his does working in the logging industry. So, don't give the BS that foreign cars last longer and of better quality....that is just an excuse. And as far as prices goes, the big 3 are more affordable. P.S....when is the last time you saw a 9ft snow plow on a foreign pick up?

yOU CAN THANK OUR DEAR unions AND THEIR GREEDY LOBBYIST FOR THEIR OWN MISTAKES. bUT, THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN UNIONS TAKE OVER BUSINESSES AND HOLD THEM HOSTAGES. tHE FUTURE IS LOOKING VERY BLEAK FOR us MANUFACTURING. i HAVE ONE gm, 2 fORDS, AND ONE hYUNDAI. i LIKE THEM ALL AND THEY HAVE OVER 120,00 EACH,,,WELL, THE hYUNDAI HAS 80,000. i WILL DRIVE THEM UNTIL THEY DIE. hAVEN'T SPENT $300.00 OVER USUAL MAINTENANCE ON ANY OF THEM. i CAN AFFORD $10. A GALLON PRICES WITH no MONTHLY CAR PAYMENTS. cAN YOU?

My last several cars have been GM and while I'd love to see them succeed I just can't support bailing them out with my tax dollars. GM's supposed plan for success is to build fewer cars and to charge more for them, I really can't see how they can get anywhere with that, I'd love to buy a new Suburban to replace my 2003 but I'm sure as heck not going to pay more for one in this market. So they will have the same number of blue collar workers building fewer cars? Doesn't make sense to me unless your core business is paying union wages and benefits and not building cars. Has there ever been a sector that has succeeded over the long term with union labor? The steel industry is gone, airlines, telecom and now auto makers are all close to bankruptcy. What's next?

I agree it is time to dump GM from the Dow. They are the worst of the big three and we should not reward them. They are like an old car that is no longer worth fixing.