Death of the Hummer

GM to Close Four Truck Plants.

General Motors Corp., struggling to return to profit amid record gasoline prices, said it will close four truck plants, make more small cars, and may drop its Hummer brand of large sport-utility vehicles

The plants will close in 2009 and 2010 and probably won't reopen, Wagoner said. They employ a total of 7,590 hourly workers and 676 salaried employees, the company said

Note they are not retooling these factories, they are closing them. So do we have yet another excuse to move even more manufacturing jobs offshore on top of things?

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Plant closings

For every direct Auto worker job there are at least 3-4 more indirect jobs lost at suppliers and service providers. These closings send a tidal wave thru the communities in not just the lost jobs but also the lost tax base

believe it or not

I had someone claim, oh they will not move manufacturing offshore. It's astounding how out of touch so many people are with manufacturing and the effect this has on local economies.

If Michigan secedes to Canada who could blame them at this point?

Canada

One of the GM plant closings is in Oshawa Canada. On NPR's Nightly Business report a few weeks back they had Canada's trade minister - he said that Canada is losing as many if not more jobs to offshoring as the US

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"If the hand of the Free Market is invisible, how come we can see it?" Tom Tomorrow

that's true

As is Europe, but I believe their respective governments and social safety nets are more amenable to doing something about it all.

That's correct

The Canadians and Europeans do have much more of a social safety net in place in terms of unemployment compensation, educational opportunities and provided health care. They are also more loyal to their own domestic brands of products and industries than Americans tend to be.