Government Motors

[brownbrown]

"We must close union offices, confiscate their money and put their leaders in prison. We must reduce workers salaries and take away their right to strike.”

~Hitler, May 2, 1933

DrOiD BioNiC EF App!

 

[hanselthecaretaker]

So if you buy 1 car in June and 2 in July, your purchases went up 100%. What kind of BS is this?
How about a reference so we can all learn about this "whopping" increase.
Because you imply that GM success is from government purchases of vehicles, which is hilarious, but I don't doubt you believe it.

It's plain as day that the increase in sales for June was attributed to a 79% spike in government fleet purchases. If you don't think that's significant or accurate, well then....geez, do you really need to be reminded of how many people work for the government?

"We must close union offices, confiscate their money and put their leaders in prison. We must reduce workers salaries and take away their right to strike.”

~Hitler, May 2, 1933

DrOiD BioNiC EF App!

Not quite. All he did was ban the Weimar unions and transfer their members to the National Socialist DAF (German Labour Front).


The primary goal of Germany’s national socialists was to “create a classless” society. Hitler’s unions were central in this cause. In fact, Hitler gave the unions their long-awaited demand, one that the Weimar unions were never able to pull off, a National Labor Day, May 1, 1933.

“Bless now our fight for our freedom; the fight we wage for our German people and Fatherland.” – Adolf Hitler’s speech, May Day 1933

Hitler Didn?t Outlaw Unions – As a National Socialist, He Went Double-Down On Them | The Graph



Having said that, it's a stretch and a half to compare a racial dictatorship to our melting pot democracy.

 

[Headholio]

It's plain as day that the increase in sales for June was attributed to a 79% spike in government fleet purchases. If you don't think that's significant or accurate, well then....geez, do you really need to be reminded of how many people work for the government?

You are really confused dude. GM revenue in 2011 was 150 Billion dollars! If you think Government purchases can put a dent in that number, then you have a problem with "perspective".

So, I tried to find the source of this talking point, using Google to search for the truth (a skill most righties seem to lack).
This 79% increase number is all over the right wing propaganda sites. Most don't provide sources, some of them do, giving a link that goes to an unreferenced blog, one blog referencing another blog etc.

Finally someone has a the guts to post a GM comment on this number:

Update: GM sales spokesman, Jim Cain, points out that total government sales for GM in June were still below 5% of total sales and majority of government sales increases were attributed to state and local governments.
GM?s Government Fleet Sales and Truck Inventory Rise | National Legal and Policy Center

If you have a little skill in math, you can easily determine that even 79% increase of 4 to 5 percent of sales can only explain a small small portion of a 16% sales rise overall.

Also, as noted above, these are state and local government fleets for the most part, not the feds.
Also important to note is that fleet sales have always been a part of GM business and month to month fluctuations of this magnitude are nothing out of the ordinary.

It is really sad to weed through the lying right wing sites, seeing this party hope for GM failure, hope for America's failure, salivate and cheer over the slightest hint of bad news. And when they can't find bad news, they make it up.