General Motors announced yesterday that it plans to suspend production of its battery-powered Chevrolet Volt for 26 days as part of a move to pare excess inventory. This is the second time this year that output has been idled due to demand-failure for this $40,000 vehicle. About 1,400 hourly workers will be affected by this production halt.
The Volt has been heavily promoted by GM as an example of the company’s technological prowess. It is a creature of President Obama’s extravagant bailout in 2009, following the complete economic collapse of the company. President Obama has touted the vehicle as an innovative step forward in support of energy conservation and the green economy. Detractors justifiably counter-claim that it is a boondoggle completely out of sync with consumer preferences.
The evidence mounts that the detractors are right and that the President is wrong. As usual, the President floats in a dream world in which consumers are robots primed to respond to his every fantasy. It is an encouraging sign that George Orwell’s 1984 nightmare is not yet a reality and that consumers remain free to flip the United States President, and the company that he now owns, the proverbial bird.
Hat Tip: Jeff Bennett, ‘GM Curbs Volt Plant Production’, The Wall Street Journal, August 28, 2012
Tags: boondoggle, consumer resistance, GM shuts down Volt production, Obama's baby
August 29, 2012 at 1:45 am |
I just read this post on the blog. We all hear about the bailout or heard about them but I never hear to much about the actual impact of the bailouts with companies. i will be paying a lot more attention and doing reading and research.
blacktea0501.blogspot.com
August 30, 2012 at 1:16 am |
The Great Leap Forward is a bust.