Ask YC: To save GM or not? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask YC: To save GM or not?

#71

Post by DaniFong » Fri, Nov 14, 2008, 1:56 AM UTC

aswanson wrote: post #69

DaniFong wrote: post #67

As a founder of an auto(motive) startup, let me tell you that the things we'd do with x billion at this stage are not good. Some investment would be helpful (and we're looking for it), but a government administered venture fund of those proportions would probably be a disaster; a distraction for the ages. Our contention is that the market has not yet fund the successor technology to gasoline yet, and giving existing…

What is the timetable you envision for your product (or something like it) to be rolled out? What are the major impediments to your progress right now?

There are lots of little ones. One that the government could help to solve is that we want to hire an automotive engineer from Austria, but either have to wait until the H1B's refresh in April or wait for an immigration lawyer to work some magic. The other issues are mostly personal; we can't work as fast as we would like because one of us maintains a job, and that we don't have enough money to setup a lab. We'd need at least a couple hundred thousand for that, though we're looking for a larger investment (x million, not xy million) so we can bring on a few experts.

Re: Ask YC: To save GM or not?

#72

Post by steveplace » Fri, Nov 14, 2008, 2:26 AM UTC

iigs wrote: post #21

noodle wrote: post #2

let them die, imo. keeping them on life support will just be a drain on everyone. bailing them out will just allow them to continue to be a terrible company. instead, use that money to fund grants and initiatives and prizes to incentivize new companies or GM itself, provided results are produced. that way, the industry will move forward. a bailout would almost definitely result in stagnation for many years. imo, ofc.…

Everybody's mad at the financial institutions for spending their bailout money on bonuses and other seemingly irresponsible things. Because these companies are not bankrupt, they're not able, as far as I know, to renegotiate much of anything they've committed themselves to contractually. From inane Union concessions (job bank) to executive compensation and stupid parts contracts, the domestics are shackled with the c…

Fortunately, GM doesn't build our tanks.

Also, when people argue about how if GM fails then all these jobs will be lost--remember this: Detroit still has leftover production infrastructure for light rail. Not a whole lot of retraining necessary, and it would work with the inevitable Keynesian domestic spending we'll have.

Re: Ask YC: To save GM or not?

#73

Post by biohacker42 » Fri, Nov 14, 2008, 3:31 PM UTC

khafra wrote: post #54

biohacker42 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, it will make things better because in a couple more years the economy is in recovery and can absorb the shock better, It's not like the government isn't planning to extend unemployment benefits because of the economy. If GM goes bust now then more people will be on the dole for longer. The tax payer pays for it one way or another.

I'm not entirely convinced there's a net benefit. Paying GM 25B to continue to use materials and labour inefficiently, creating vehicles that won't sell, provides a reason to give their workers a salary which they'll spend in their local economy, keeping second-order collapses like those that accompany the closing of military bases in isolated areas from happening. If, on the other hand, we shut down GM and put its f…

Upvoted, you convinced me.

Re: Ask YC: To save GM or not?

#74

Post by redrobot5050 » Fri, Nov 14, 2008, 6:10 PM UTC

blackguardx wrote: post #57

redrobot5050 wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is UAW doesn't want to re-negotiate because it knows there's no way it will ever have its standard of living this good ever again. GM and Ford would probably insist on slashing wages by half. Already new hires who are not UAW are put on a different pay and benefit scale to reflect that a machine could do their job. GM has already volunteered 300,000 UAW employees for "early retirement" -- coaxing them to…

The UAW won't exist if the big three fold.

Its not smart to know that. Its confident they will be bailed out.