Why GM Failed and Won't Recover

Greed and blinders. Those are the root causes of GM's collapse and why they won't recover. General Motors used to be the largest industrial company in the world.

Gas was cheap, muscle cars were hip, and consumers were buying.

It owned the market. The problem was that it grew so complacent in that role that it couldn't compete with imports like Toyota and Nissan and their efficient production methods. In many cases management was simply in denial.

For example, when Jim Harbour had the audacity to try to warn and explain to his GM superiors why the Japanese production methods were more efficient, management's response was to simply ban him from the company property.

Nothing says great management like holding your hands over your ears and saying, "LA LA LA LA LA."

But if denial was the carpenter that built GM's coffin, the UAW union was the hammer that drove the final nails into the lid.

This is the story of unbridled greed, a lunatic sense of entitlement, and a cowardly management team too scared to stand up to labor bullies.

GM finally realized that to survive after imports ceased to become imports, when they were being built here, they had no option but to become more efficient. This meant fewer, more productive workers as well as new technology.

But the union would have none of that. The workers were entitled. They weren't like the average American citizen. They deserved to be taken care of. So, management caved and created the Job Bank, which is secret union code language for being paid for sitting at home watching Oprah.

Then there's the union's demand for pensions and health care. This is another area where the management surrender monkeys wouldn't and still won't face reality. But why should they? GM can't afford it so now the Obama administration is using taxpayer dollars to fund UAW pensions and health care.

That's right, non-union workers without health care, are funding health care and pensions for union members that, in many cases, make more money per hour than they do.

This is the redistribution of wealth policy that America voted for.

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not. -Thomas Jefferson