GM—gone?

From a June 6 audio column at www. prisonradio.org. Go to www.millions4mumia.org for legal and political updates on Mumia’s case.

Having entered bankruptcy court (even a so-called ‘structural’ bankruptcy), General Motors is making history. It was once the titanic behemoth of American business, making more money than any other business.

In 2006, GM reported revenues of $207 billion, yet profits were minus $1.9 billion. As we know, even a titanic can sink.

Three years ago, GM was the third-largest U.S. corporation in revenues. Today it has been de-listed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average, as its stock price fell below $1 a share.

The U.S. government is now loaning billions to GM, totaling almost $50 billion in taxpayer dollars, without any assurance that it’ll be repaid.

GM was the nation’s largest automaker, manufacturing Chevrolet, Pontiac, Cadillac, Buick, Saab and Saturn. Some models are being discontinued, while others will be sold. They also made the Hummer, a gas-guzzling SUV that has reportedly been sold to a Chinese manufacturer.

Critics in Congress and in the corporate media have blamed GM’s problems on their payroll and so-called “legacy” costs, meaning retirees’ benefits.

Even after the crumbling of the business model, the anti-union animus of such critics remains a central concern of the political and propaganda elites, many of whom praised the passage of NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) as “good for business” and therefore “good for America.”

But only a numbskull believes those on the assembly line designed or decided which kind of cars would be built or sold.

GM suffered from managerial myopia, which could not adapt to changing market conditions.

Thirty years ago, when the U.S. faced an oil crisis, small cars began to appear on the roads. As oil prices stabilized, U.S. car makers built fleets of SUVs, which sold quite well to Americans who wanted the civilian equivalent of a tank in their garage.

But the gas crisis of 2007 put an end to that idea. U.S. automakers couldn’t give these things away.

In the meantime, car makers in Korea and Japan, which built safe, affordable cars with extended warranties and polite customer services to Americans, are GM’s lunch. Other Asian companies are joining the club. India’s Tata Motors, makers of the cheapest car in the world—the $2,000 Nano—has just acquired Jaguar and Land Rover.

Being “too big to fail” is a political judgment, not an economic one. In classic capitalist theory, a business survives if it sells products and makes a profit.

We are beyond that point now. Politics may disguise the problem, but it can’t solve it.

Mumia’s new book: Jailhouse Lawyers Prisoners Defending Prisoners v. the U.S.A. is available at Leftbooks.com