Bailout Watch 201: GM PR's Tangerine Dream

Robert Farago
by Robert Farago
Robert Farago
Robert Farago

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  • ExtraO ExtraO on Nov 17, 2008

    I watched this silly video and immediately thought of something I had read earlier today at wikipedia for completely unrelated reasons. GROUPTHINK: Irving Janis, who did extensive work on the subject, defined it as: A mode of thinking that people engage in when they are deeply involved in a cohesive in-group, when the members' strivings for unanimity override their motivation to realistically appraise alternative courses of action... In order to make groupthink testable, Irving Janis devised eight symptoms that are indicative of groupthink (1977). 1. Illusions of invulnerability creating excessive optimism and encouraging risk taking. 2. Rationalising warnings that might challenge the group's assumptions. 3. Unquestioned belief in the morality of the group, causing members to ignore the consequences of their actions. 4. Stereotyping those who are opposed to the group as weak, evil, disfigured, impotent, or stupid. 5. Direct pressure to conform placed on any member who questions the group, couched in terms of "disloyalty". 6. Self censorship of ideas that deviate from the apparent group consensus. 7. Illusions of unanimity among group members, silence is viewed as agreement. 8. Mindguards — self-appointed members who shield the group from dissenting information.

  • Demetri Demetri on Nov 17, 2008

    People supposedly won't buy from a company in bankruptcy, but I wonder how many want to buy from a company that is publicly pleading for taxpayer money. I think this is a damaging PR campaign that only serves to disgust the general public. And I seriously doubt that some UAW concessions are going to turn GM around. We're talking about a company that is losing billions per *month* and is over 50 (60?) billion in debt. The Volt and Cruze don't matter. The Volt is too expensive, isn't a mainstream product, and doesn't make money. The Cruze is the new Malibu. The product that's supposed to save GM but doesn't amount to a damn thing. No one cares. People aren't going to buy enough Cruzes to support this busted company. It's over people.

  • Len_A Len_A on Nov 17, 2008

    @Demetri: May I point out that history proves that opinion wrong. I speak specifically to Chrysler in 1979. Sales went up shortly after the loan guarantees, and by 1983 the loan guarantees were paid back in full. Early. UAW concessions are unnecessary if the company is allowed to make it to January, 2010. Then GM's (and Ford & Chrysler's)labor costs drop by a third. At that point, their labor costs are within a $1.50 an hour of Toyota's, and more importantly, they stay that low. If the critics can still complain about that, then they just want to complain and criticize for the sake of complaining and criticizing.

  • Demetri Demetri on Nov 17, 2008

    Correct me if I'm wrong but I don't recall Chrysler execs getting on TV and begging for money. GM has bigger problems than labor costs. The rot is so deep that I think the only thing that could possibly save them is C11. And even that probably wouldn't work. Ford I have a little more hope for, but I think it will at least take Chrysler or GM to go down so that they can pick up some volume.

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