wouldn't that be strange

Well, look at that -- it's the Schadenfreude school of marketing theory put into practice:


Actually, the same Honda ad appeared on all the Yahoo News headline stories, but it was still mildly amusing to come across it in the context of General Motors' labor-related woes. It reminded me of Goodyear's ad blitz in the wake of concerns about the safety of rival Firestone's products, with ads that stopped just short of saying "Goodyear: Tires that won't explode and cause you to die in a horrible wreck."

From the same article:

Investors will likely look at the situation as a one-time nonrecurring item, as they have in similar occurrences in the past, said Sklar. Some, he added, may see the strike as a sign that GM is hanging tough in its negotiations and is determined to secure the concessions necessary to make the company competitive.

"So, in kind of an unintuitive way, a strike is positive for the stocks because it means that the industry is being resistant to the demands of labor."

Fuck fair wages and benefits, squeezing concessions from the folks who actually build the damn cars and trucks makes the speculators happy, and that's what really matters. Forget the fact that the reason why GM is in such a fix is that the corporate inertia of its executive leadership got complacent and put all their eggs in a basket towed by gas guzzling trucks and SUV's despite compelling economic trends.

So it makes sense that the line workers bear the burden for that blind complacency...

Crass - General Bacardi (from The Feeding of the 5000, 1978) - "The generals sip Bacardi/while the privates feel the pain." Too fucking right.

Fischer-Z - The Worker (from Word Salad, 1979) - The "Z" is pronounced "zed." Get it?