As I mentioned they are all losing money, and market share. Gm used to have over 53-54% of the TOTAL market at one time not very long ago. Now they are at less than 25%, and soon will be overtaken by Toyota for #1 spot by the end of this year. OUCH

 

I'm sorry to say it guys and no offense intended for members.....but it's the unions gutting the American auto industry. I have read how the average worker for GM was making $80+ an hour after you figure in benefits, pensions and all the other perks. One guy I worked with at the caddy store said he went to the corvette plant in Kentucky and saw a guy reading the newspaper on the assembly line. He would pick up 4-5 plastic push pins, stick them in the car and then turn around to read the paper until the next car came along.

Nissan here in Tennessee has no union and look how good they are doing. I think unions are outdated, raping the industry. Just my humble opinion......

 

And I agree with you 100%

Even in the construction business...

 

I agree 110%. I will never join a Union. If the place is big enough to have a union i wont be there.

 

I agree as well. The Union did have it's time and place and it is not now! Now most people think that alot of poor folks are all pro Union, not so!! Heck I ain't got two nickels to rub together and I am anti Union and a Conservative to boot, the only person I have to blame for not beein "well heeled" is myself not every other friggin person in the country. Granted I'm only 23 and I am sure I will be doin better in a few years but farmin ain't no way to get rich!!

 

yah gots to grow cotton my boy...

My dad is 82, he has an 80 acre farm.. 45 is in tillage...We grow cotton on that...I am 25 and live 500 miles from him, but go home 2 weekends a month to do the farm work.

I have picked the first harvest, and we scrap every year no matter what...

I picked 97 bales, and this was a drought year down in Georgia. Yes he irrigated with the center pivot, but you got to spend money to make it...

we sold for $.59 a pound, then pot payment of $.10 per pound...

We will prolly get 10 more bales on scrapping, and that will pay for our diesel and cotton picker grease this year.....

as soon as the cotton is through, I cut the stalks, and then grain drill in wheat or rye, whichever he wants me to.

You can make money farming, it is just when the farmers think they have to have the best of the best when they start to go under...

I worked for a farmer in high school all the way through college, and he farmed 3000 acres of cotton. He started buying high dollar tractors, and equipment. He is struggling to stay afloat right now, and is back to using 88 (like the ole 5488) series IH tractors, and (2) 2255 cotton pickers....

It can be done, I know. Our cotton pickers, we have (3) 9900's, one is for parts, the other two are good to go, cost us less than $10,000.

Yes it makes the work harder (which has never killed anyone), but the margin is better at tax time when you file...

 

Yes, the unions might not be helping, BUT CEO's getting multi million dollar compensation packages???!!? That husrts just as much. But we won't talk about that, will we? .

Has anyone seen the 2007 Toyota Tundra?? The writeup I read last night said--stronger than the F-150 ( towing capacity over 10,000) and more power than the "revered" HEMI---

Plus great customer service---As my screen name implies---I am a Mopar man, BUT----maybe not next time??

 

Don't see much cotton much our way, but we do grow a good bit of tobacco, that's where the moneys at around here. We can see 2,400lb an acre (pretty decent) and are seein $1.58 lb post buyout (plus incentives from the companies you contract with)

A controversial crop, but tobacco has paid off alot of farms and sent alot of kids to school. And the most $ per acre of any crop (legal) around here.

 

There is NO danger of toyota taking over the number one spot in the USA for many, many years. Get your facts straight. toyota may (Or may not!) over take GM world wide, but not in the USA. GM has about 26% of the market share, and it has been more then 25 years since they had 50%. (Not 54%)
If you have a whole pie, you have 100%, but once someone takes a small bite of it, you no longer have 100%. The same goes in the auto industry, more manufacturers = less market share per manufacturer. Someone has too be top dog, I just hope it is NEVER a Japanese company here in the USA

 

hdmax it is you who can not get your facts straight Sadly GM did used to have 53-54% US market share, and now has about 25%. It is not a matter of IF Toyota overtakes GM, but WHEN. Most industry analysts say by the end of this year, or very early part of next year Toyota will overtake GM and be #1 in worldwide sales. US sales won't take as long as you think either, as they have lost market share almost every year for many years now.

You drive a chevrolet truck(FRENCH NAME) with a (JAPANESE) engine , are you prejudice or just blind to the realities of the auto industry and most industries now, or what? This is called the free market, so accept it. No one manufacturer makes ALL their own components anymore, or for that matter even in the US. You can take solace in the fact though that most foreign manufacturers are setting up plants in the US with jobs.

With the high employee/retiree costs by the union on GM, they are at a big $ disadvantage to other auto makers. There is no easy answer to the problems, but I would suspect there will be a LOT of amalgamations/mergers coming in the near future, remember just a few weeks ago Nissan/Renault/GM alliance talks, now over and with no agreement, makes you wonder.