GovernMent propaganda — VOICES for REASON

In a series of ads for “The New GM,” General Motors, recently taken over by the government, is doing everything it can to present itself as a newly nimble private company.  GM, the ads imply, is single-mindedly focused on returning to profitability by offering truly desirable cars to customers. How are they going to do this? By producing the kind of cars the Obama administration has been pushing: small cars with high fuel economy, hybrid technology, “alternative fuel” capability, etc.

If GM’s new approach sounds like an exciting turnaround, it isn’t. GM has already gone down a less extreme version of this road — and it proved to be the road to bankruptcy. Induced by irrational government fuel economy laws and union laws to make myriad small, fuel-efficient cars with overpaid union workers, GM lost enormous amounts of money. By contrast, GM and other American automakers made money on larger, safer, more luxurious cars (which could more easily absorb the higher labor costs) including SUVs and Muscle Cars — cars the administration decries. (See my previous blog post “The elephant — and the donkey — in the room.”)

And we can see this trend continuing today with the one new GM car that is generating genuine excitement among consumers, a car developed pre-Obama-era. Is it a hybrid or other car that gets 30+ MPG? No — the new hit car is a Muscle Car, the revamped Chevy Camaro, which gets a whopping 22 miles per gallon. And it’s only that high if you buy the lower-powered V-6 model.

Is there any chance that the new “Government Motors” would have developed this Camaro? I don’t think so, because it doesn’t fit into the government’s priorities, which are the real factor driving GM. While the old GM was hardly a model of customer focus, The New GM is necessarily government-focused. It is not privately owned or controlled; it is majority-owned by the government, and therefore controlled by Barack Obama and his appointees. It exists to pursue their agenda. Remember, Obama fired the former CEO of GM. He set the terms of GM’s phony bankruptcy. He holds all GM’s sticks and carrots — and GM acts accordingly.

There is nothing “New” about this GM. It is a government-controlled auto company pursuing the government’s agenda — an agenda that has nothing to do with making superior, profitable cars. Don’t let the ads deceive you otherwise.

flickr/myobb