Thadeus Thornton III

Six Cars That Represent the Future of Driving

Chevrolet already has the Fuel Celled powered Equinox operating prototypes in actual use. GM has been developing fuel cell technology long before any other car maker.Funny how the author mentions a Honda concept vehicle, but somehow missed the Equinox.
www.chevrolet.com/fuel.../

Time for GM to Declare Bankruptcy?

We can't give tax credits for auto purchases. All that money just went to AIG execs for "talent bonuses". LOL

Time for GM to Declare Bankruptcy?

Here is an interesting insight about the term "Socialism". Many do not realize The city of Milwaukee had 2 Socialist Mayors for many years and both business and individuals benefited. I'm just saying. Many people equate Hitler with Socialism. He was a fascist and used the term "socialism" to get his public to buy into his agenda. I'm just saying. . .
So here is an except of an article at this site:

letters.salon.com/news...


* * * > I'm a product of Milwaukee Socialism < * * *

I still am unable to see what all the kerfuffle is about, regarding Americans and socialism. I grew up in a major American city (Milwaukee - during the 1950s) when Mayor Fran Zeidler brought many vast changes, improvements. He is generally described as the "last Socialist Mayor", see e.g.

www.cbsnews.com/storie...

www.washingtonpost.com...

and:

americancity.org/magaz.../

Extract from the last:

"Milwaukee has produced more notable Socialist politicians and policymakers than any city in the United States. Socialist Emil Seidl won the city’s mayoralty in 1910, as did 21 Socialist city aldermen that year. Daniel Hoan served as a Socialist mayor from 1916 to 1940 and kept the city debt-free through the Great Depression. Charles Whitnall, another Socialist, was Milwaukee’s chief planner during the 1920s and 1930s. On the national stage, Victor Berger represented Milwaukee in the House of Representatives during World War I, and his anti-war stance made him famous. Collectively, these leaders showed a remarkable willingness to experiment, remaking Milwaukee’s urban form. By 1920, it was the second most densely populated city in the country. When Whitnall created a comprehensive zoning ordinance in 1920, Milwaukee became the first city to enact zoning. Socialists built Milwaukee’s Garden Homes in the 1920s, the first municipally funded housing project in America.

Frank Zeidler, originally an engineer by trade and an admirer of both Hoan and Whitnall’s planning-minded development, came to lead Milwaukee by chance. His older brother, Carl, defeated Hoan in the 1940 mayoral election. Two years later, Carl Zeidler signed up to serve in the Navy during World War II. After his ship was lost at sea in the Pacific Ocean, he became a legendary local figure. In 1948, Frank Zeidler, already a longtime Socialist party member at age 38 and a former City of Milwaukee School Board member, decided to run for mayor in a crowded field of fourteen candidates. He emerged the victor, due at least in part to his locally famous surname.

After World War II, American cities struggled with housing shortages, increasingly drab downtowns, and emerging racial divisions. Zeidler addressed these differently than most big-city mayors. “Growth coalitions” of downtown businesses, civic elites, real estate interests, and politicians were emerging as national paradigms for rebuilding the central cores of cities such as Pittsburgh and Chicago. But Zeidler’s administration openly resisted this model. Never comfortable with Milwaukee’s business establishment, Zeidler recalled in his memoirs: “I could see that these men moved in a stratum of society into which I had never entered.” Rather than focus solely on the urban core, Zeidler urged his planners to preempt suburbanization by designing large communities in the rural countryside.

In 1951, Zeidler announced an audacious plan to build a ten-square-mile community in neighboring (and then rural) Waukesha County, a “satellite city” that would house over 50,000 residents on city-owned land. Catherine Bauer, a noted housing reformer, once told Zeidler that his satellite city was “the most progressive and significant move being made in the whole field of city planning and housing in America today.” When the plan faltered due to suburban resistance in the courts, Zeidler’s administration stepped up annexation, with the goal of creating a single metropolitan government for the Milwaukee region."

Growing up in this enriched, people-supported environment, I came to believe this was the natural order of things. Until I lived in other American cities (Miami, New Orleans, Baltimore, Tampa).

But under Zeidler, people had a chance, Their quality of life improved, even if working class and laboring at the breweries downtown. (Schlitz, Pabst, Miller etc.)

Auto Sales Declines Around the World

@ User 36014

----> "Also, it makes people soft and pudgy, even the children. Ask yourself how does the addition of each new car benefit my children and my neighbors? How does each new car improve the health of my community? Let me know what you find out." <-----

All of what you say is sadly very true. I don't expect transportation customs to change over night in our country. It does represent personal freedom and expression at a great cost however. I don't expect things will change very much or too quickly. The almost hedonistic desires of some people who want to drive lavish or performance oriented vehicles has become entrenched in our society. Marketing of all kinds has cast it's spell over many.
I wish GM would concentrate on some of the fuel efficient models it does have and develop practical low cost additions to their lineup. If they dressed up the interiors of a few cars as they did in the current Malibu , Saturn Aura, and even Aveo, I think that would be a start. GM has the Cobalt XFE with high mpg for a gasoline powered car. They have the new Cobalt replacement in the wings, but I hope to don't make it too pricey. Actually, a freshened up Cobalt wouldn't be bad, with some lighter interior choices and materials. They also have some new mini cars proposed [Korean offshoots from Daewoo? ]

But I agree. I live in an area where, for years, they have been trying to get a light rail transport system going between the capitol and other cities within 40 to 100 miles. The state has just proposed using some economic stimulus monies to get it going again. We will see.

Problems That Detroit Bailout I Doesn't Address

More "expert" poppycock using faulty reasoning and ignoring the fact that Ford and GM were on their to restructuring their businesses over the last 7 years until the grossly overpaid gurus in the financial and banking sectors caused the credit crunch. Don't you realize that dealers as well as the auto makers use loans to maintain inventory just like most other businesses do? Let that dry that up, along with little or no credit for even good potential customers, and the money leaks out of the bottom of the bucket in no time.
Don't start with old Detroit auto companies and the "deep south" crap.
The REAL outrage is the financial sector ( Like AIG, etc) that continues to reward it's hot dog gurus with outrageous bonuses and salaries and no questions asked for $150- $350 - $700 - $800 BILLION. Yes, the "Big
3" could have tried to anticipate the market and get workers to work for less, and yada-yada-yada sooner. But what about the grossly overpaid financial guys at Freddie, Fannie, Lehman Bros. , etc who went bust and got HUNDREDs of BILLIONS with hardly a question and no congressional 3rd degree.
This auto thing is more of a smoke screen to confuse and draw attention away from the greed, stupidity, and irresponsibility of the financial world, and the good old boys in congress who just HAD to help out those buddies! Go back to school. Everything you learned about business and finance was bogus and designed to let run away greed happen like it just did in the financial sector. Derivatives, credit default swaps, what a bunch of rip off BS!