Originally Posted by Anglo Large Clawed Otter (Post 10783960)

The Box has a topic?

Originally Posted by ssullivan (Post 10784045)

The union contracts are part of the problem — but so is the management. And the management's been a large part of the problem for decades. Seriously, in the 1980s when GM was racking up multi-billion dollar profits, they were laying people off and starting the exporting of production to places like Mexico. This was when they were massively profitable. Yet most of those profits weren't being reinvested in the company to develop better products that people actually wanted to buy. Those profits weren't being reinvested to develop new technologies. Instead, a lot of it went to executive and shareholder pockets, and the competition was allowed to easily gain an advantage through selling better products at lower prices to a public that was fed up with buying GMs and Fords that needed something like a new alternator every 14 months.

I think the corporate jet thing yesterday is a prime example of the greed and excess that has plagued that industry for many years. Yes it's just a symptom of the problem, and in the big scheme of their issues, it's minor. But it is a symptom, and a lot of the problems aren't the unions. A lot of the fault lies with the management that refused to adequately invest in innovation and development of new technology, that refused to invest in quality and instead willingly turned out products that they knew were inferior, and that refused to generate a long-term vision for keeping those companies viable and profitable for not just years, but decades.

Originally Posted by ssullivan (Post 10784120)

and watching day two of Woot's current Woot-Off for any good junk I really don't need at cheap prices.

Originally Posted by Olton Hall (Post 10784115)

I could go on and on about big three management but I have to catch a train in a few minutes. If Ford wakes up they have a chance to turn their US ops around. They simply need to look at their European lineup to figure out the clues. Their cars over there have sharper styling, handle better, proper steering wheel feedback, don't wander side to side on the highway, etc. People say good things about the Focus in Europe yet the same people say the US Focus is a pile of junk in comparison. Top Gear picked the Ford Mondeo as their co-top car of the year for 2008. So why don't we have those cars here. Granted it would take a lot of time and money to re-tool the US factories to produce those cars.

Originally Posted by sdm1130 (Post 10784130)

^ I haven't found anything good on Woot in a long time...

Originally Posted by sdm1130 (Post 10784130)

^ I haven't found anything good on Woot in a long time...

Originally Posted by Anglo Large Clawed Otter (Post 10784303)

PHL-SJC $692+ Q-UP on US. I found a PHL-CLT-PHX-SJC-PHX-CLT-PHL routing that will earn about 17,500 BD miles...

Originally Posted by sdm1130 (Post 10784337)

$700 to fly US? No thanks.

Originally Posted by ssullivan (Post 10784336)

LOL. But you do have to fly US. :p

Originally Posted by ssullivan (Post 10784336)

LOL. But you do have to fly US. :p