Chevy Volt a Failure - GM to Layoff 1,300

Which has what, exactly, to do with the Volt's specific situation as it regards the American taxpayer?

For now, the internal combustion engine is the best option for the vast majority of people. Know how I know that? Because the vast majority of people are buying cars with internal combustion engines.

That doesn't mean that isn't going to change eventually as the technology improves and the price comes down. Considering the popularity of many hybrids, I'm sure it will.

But I'm gonna enjoy watching you twist yourself into a pretzel trying to explain how wasting billions of taxpayer dollars on a car nobody wants will bring us closer to that objective.

 

The government spent a lot of taxpayer dollars developing jet engines and computers before there was a commercial market for either.

 

Pretty sure that's not the same thing. Also pretty sure an obviously intelligent individual like you knew that already.

The federal government spent a lot of taxpayer dollars developing jet engines and computer technology for the purpose of enhancing this nation's defense, one of its powers enumerated in the Constitution.

Based on the car's awful sales numbers, the billions of dollars we've spent so far on the Volt have taken our country no closer to an electric car that the American public both wants and can afford to purchase. Its main purpose has been advancing both the political career of the sitting president and the environmental agenda of said president's party. I think even the loosest possible definition of "promoting the general welfare" fails miserably in this case.

That won't change as long as the government owns GM and there is no profit requirement attached to its production. The Volt will simply continue to be proppsed up on the backs of working Americans until somebody puts a stop to it.

 

Ideological boilerplate noted.

 

We've been subsidizing electric cars and hybrids since - what was it Ragu? - 2004.

 

I'm sure Kodak wishes they wasted money in becoming competitive in the digital market.

Companies just don't wake up one morning and decide to be cutting edge in an emerging technology. It takes years of R&D and test models and items on the market just to stay at the top.

The Volt and the Spark are steps GM needs to make to stay a competitive automaker. Even if it is at a loss in the first few years, the investment will pay off down the road.

Remember this guy?



Well, guess what these first baby steps evolved into?

 

Once again, it's not even close to the same.

GM cannot afford to lose money now on an investment that might pay off a few years down the road. Without the American taxpayer, GM can't even afford to pay its employees. It's tits up, baby.

So maybe, just maybe, the leaders of this government-owned company ought to think about producing some cars that people actually want to pay for now instead of wasting billions on a worthless piece of crap nobody is buying.

 

Noted in your case too since its what you type every fucking time.

 

Actually, I'm pretty sure I haven't staked out any position at all here.

I'm neither for the Volt nor against it, as either technology or politics. I wouldn't have chosen to produce the car under a government subsidy. But we do the same every day for much greater dollar amounts and no one complains, so the complaints here seem pretty hollow.

For better or worse, now that we're all shareholders, we should be rooting for GM to succeed.

In support of that when people post technical misinformation here, mostly in service of ideology, I try to correct it.

 

You're a liar.

 

Nope.

Please go back through the thread.

 

Hokie, if you are a business in the current and future markets not looking 5-10-20 years down the road, you will be dead very soon. Go get yourself a Blackberry or something from Tower Records. Maybe you can set up a Myspace account for yourself?

We are all stakeholders in GM. They are still making gas powered cars, but the future is electric.