With the amount of money the Big 3 have paid in taxes to uncle sam over the last 100 years, a loan should be a no brainer.

 

Perhaps if the government actually had the money to give them......or the banking industry, or the war in Iraq.

As it stands right now we actually can't pay for jack sh*t, so every dime that government hands out as corporate welfare just make the dollar more and more worthless, which is something that will effect everyone.



F*ck the terrorists, America is being destroyed by Paulson & Bernanke.

 

Something tells me you know more than you are letting on wrt GM's board.

Would it be that bad for GM if the whole board were replaced? Maybe recruit some Japanese car execs and have them work in Detroit?

 

http://www.gm.com/corporate/investor..._gov/board.jsp

There seems to be a lack of automotive expertise on the board. While I understand you want a good contingent of process, executive, compliance, and business people... I sure wouldn't mind a couple of people familiar with how to run a car company on that board. Maybe the bios I checked just don't reflect this information.

 

Here is a reasonable look at the total cost per hour of the Gulfstream V. Keep in mind, they probably only take on fuel in Detroit at a contract price. http://www.planequest.com/operationc...nfo.asp?id=125

To keep is simple, you can figure 2.5 hours round trip (DTW to IAD and back). Seems a little less than 20k to me? What do you think??

 

Or, like, people who actually *love cars.*

It's not a recipe for success when your board thinks, "Oh, well, if this folds up I can move on to General Foods or Proctor and Gamble or Johnson and Johnson and do the same thing"--and not give two craps where they work or what they work on!

 

Truthfully, I'm pretty unconcerned about these CEO's salaries or that Wagoner took the corporate jet. These are people in the big leagues, I don't expect them to work for free or take a commercial flight, when the company jet is a more efficient way to travel with your staff as you prepare for an important meeting. I do however expect them to perform.

I'd like to ask RW three questions:

1) Why didn't your partnership with Subaru work?

2) What series of events made you feel it was a good idea to sell control of your finance arm?

3) Do you think that allowing Fiat to manipulate you into paying $6 billion, in order so you could share intellectual property in one of their diesel engines, is good value for the shareholders?

But of course, from what I've seen on those hearings, the Senators were merely pandering to the cameras.

 

In the big picture, the cost of using their private jets (most of the expense of which is probably already a sunk cost anyway) is not really significant.

What is significant is how completely stupid it is for someone to use their private jet to fly to DC so that they can beg for taxpayer money...if the Detroit Three don't get their bailout, you can likely place a lot of the blame on the arrogance of these guys, especially Wagoner.

 

That chart is out dated, reflecting on very low fuel costs, and unrealistic fixed costs. It costs us 3000 for the first hour, and 2500 for each additional hour.

 

Wow, I actually came pretty close with my quick & dirty calculations earlier. I was a little high, though.

 

If I was paying somebody $25,000,000 a year (i.e. Alan from Ford) I'd sure want his flight time to be minimized, and productive. If he works even up to 4,000 hours/year, that's still $6250 an hour. Even if there were only a few high paid guys on one corporate jet, it's worth the price of the flight just to keep them productive.

Further, if the private jet got him to DC a couple hours faster, and that even slightly helped the odds of getting the 25B due to one more meeting with key politicians, that would justify the time saved, hands down.

You guys making professional wages, would you take a bus 10 miles to work at the expense of a half hour lost time every day, just to save a buck or 5 in gas? I sure wouldn't. Same thing, different numbers.

 

Yea, it may be a little antiquated. I'm sure their fuel cost is out of DTW is not way off from that chart. Surely, I would hope their paying less than $+6/gal. from what was quoted earlier in this post.

And, there is no doubt your 1st hour fuel burn is way higher than each additional hour you fly. However, from an accounting perspective, when your figuring direct operating costs per hour, that's it. You really don't account for short trips verse long trips. Bottom line is, 20k for the D.C. trip is an excessive & uninformed statement.

 

Why not drive there?

 

That story is a joke. I'm willing to bet Rick didn't go on that trip alone. Even if they did take a commercial plane they would the be paying to have their private jet just sitting there wasting money.

 

That's a great suggestion. Hell, they should all walk. Barefoot.