Some interesting GM facts from Carpe Diem

From Professor Mark Perry's Carpe Diem Blog:


"In Michigan there are 193,301 GM retirees and 46,467 active manufacturing workers, which is a ratio of more than 4 retirees per active worker. For Ohio, the ratio is more than 6 retirees per active worker, and in Indiana there are 8.6 retirees per active worker!

As someone said recently, "GM has become a health care benefits management firm that sells cars for a loss as a side venture.""

He also points out: "To put the decline in the number of GM manufacturing workers in perspective, consider that there are currently about 80,000 GM manufacturing workers in the entire U.S. In the 1970s, GM employed almost 85,000 workers in just one U.S. city: Flint, Michigan, "Vehicle City.""

Although this could be a little skewed seeing as how he's not taking account for the additional value added per worker, i.e. due to technological improvements and better education, each worker becoming more efficient, and as time goes by each worker can produce more.

And a quote found on Carpe Diem:
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2009/06/government-motors-quotes-of-day.html

The government that runs Amtrak (which has lost $23 billion, in today's dollars, just since 1990) vows to make GM efficient. But one reason Amtrak runs on red ink is that legislators treat it as their toy train set, preventing it from cutting egregiously unprofitable routes.

~George Will