Posted on 04/20/2017 8:17:35 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
This news broke overnight and it undoubtedly comes as a shock to anyone who hasn’t been paying to socialism in general and the regime of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in particular. The government of Venezuela came in and seized control of the General Motors plant in the city of Valencia, taking over the property, assets and accounts. The automotive giant responded by saying that they were immediately halting operations. (CNN)
General Motors says it will immediately halt operations in Venezuela after its plant in the country was unexpectedly seized by authorities.
GM (GM) described the takeover as an “illegal judicial seizure of its assets.”
The automaker said the seizure showed a “total disregard” of its legal rights. It said that authorities had removed assets including cars from company facilities.
“[GM] strongly rejects the arbitrary measures taken by the authorities and will vigorously take all legal actions, within and outside of Venezuela, to defend its rights,” it said in a statement.
GM’s Venezuelan operation was already pretty much at the point of stagnation. Productivity was approaching zero because their currency had collapsed and they couldn’t order parts to keep the lines running. Also, the domestic market for cars wasn’t exactly booming because their potential customers have money which is basically worthless and they’re mostly too busy looking for scraps of food to worry about a new set of wheels.
If nothing else, this incident will provide an enlightening, educational moment for the rest of the world. It’s a given that this is bad news for General Motors, for the workers there… let’s just say it. This is bad news for everyone except Maduro and his cronies. But it also serves to further pull away the mask, allowing the rest of the world to see what’s actually going on. So gather around, kids, because we’re not only seeing how socialism ends (and it always ends this way) but also how the socialist machinery operates through the various phases of its life cycle.
Originally, the government tolerates the presence of foreign manufacturing entities such as General Motors to fill needs they have which can’t be handled domestically. (GM has been there for roughly seven decades.) It’s not that the Venezuelan people are incapable of innovation or creation… there’s simply no motivation for them to strive for success. Anything they create simply becomes the property of the state anyway, so the hard working, innovative person doesn’t realize much more success than the guy who can barely keep his eyes open to show up for his job sweeping the sidewalk. There’s no point to being particularly innovative.
So companies such as GM are allowed to go to work. But once the system inevitably begins to implode, the tyrant in charge begins looking for new resources to grab. In the name of the socialist concept wherein everything “belongs to the people” he seizes the GM plant. They take the cars which are there to hand out to high ranking party officials and divide up the assets while demanding that the workers get back to producing automobiles. This is, of course, impossible because they don’t have the parts to do it and the people who actually know how to run things are fleeing.
These are the fruits of socialism. It’s a humanitarian disaster to be sure, but it’s also a teachable moment. Watch and learn.
Coming soon the 2017 GM El Yugo.
My guess... GM noticed there was very little to be gained by staying in the country anymore and was looking for an exit. Government got wind and... GOTCHA!
I think around 10 years ago it would have become apparent that the plant’s days were numbered. I’m sure GM had no chance of successfully selling the facility, and I suppose the best course of action was to keep operating it for as long as possible.
I would be interested to know whether or not GM had made any recent upgrades or investments in the plant...which would have been a mistake.
I’d also like to think that they managed to arrange it such that their most outdated equipment went to this plant vs brand new stuff.
They need to rename it: Twentieth Century Motor Company...................
Socialist states turn their armed forces into thugs and goons that rob and suppress the people. They cannot survive without controlling the military.
Then we should seize CITGO immediately
“Good luck running the plant!”
I know! Where are you going to get parts or supplies? And wat happens when the CAD drawings all disappear? A plant like that is less than worthless to unskilled bureaucrats. I’d be buying stock in Venezuelan lamp post manufacturers.
Just communists being communist. Dog bites man, film at eleven.
5.56mm
Maybe we can bail out GM...
They are too big to fail...
“If you want to know, I have left nothing but junk on the San Sebastian Line, and as little of that as possible. I have moved everything that could be moved — switch engines, shop tools, even typewriters and mirrors — out of Mexico.”
“Why in blazes?”
“So that the looters won’t have too much to loot when they nationalize the line.”
Exactly the experience my grandfather had. The government slowly put the squeeze on his business in Mexico in the 1920s, demanding more and more, until finally he loaded everything moveable and headed for the border. The rest was seized.
Since then, the family advice has always been, “Never, never, never never, go [invest] south of the border.”
Feel the Burn! Hahahah
Venezuela — AND AMERICA — are suffering under the “myth” of UNBACKED PAPER FIAT CURRENCY and will continue to suffer until this very profitable — for a SELECT FEW – SCAM is halted!
Lori and I delve into this topic in part 2 of our series at the link below. Listen — if you dare!
1/2 HOUR RADIO SHOW ON MONEY, THE FED, INFLATION, ETC.
As some already know, since mid-2014, we’ve been doing a 30 minute weekly Wednesday
radio show (aka “rant”) with Dr. Lori Wilson out of WLBB in Carrollton, Georgia.
If you have an interest in listening, go to this link http://www.gradickcommunications.com
and the center “PODCASTS” Menu and click on “The Wednesday Show with Dick Bachert” for the current program.
If you want to listen real-time, the show airs between 8:30 to 9:00 AM, Eastern
“Then we should seize CITGO immediately”
I agree!!!
Our Government Motors is now THEIR Government Motors. Too funny!
>>What should the CEO have done when Chavez took over? Close it? It survived 10 years of Chavez and several years of Maduro, this was unexpected.
This was utterly predictable. Companies doing business in a socialist country are playing Russian Roulette. The first chamber might be empty, but if you pull the trigger enough times...
US company having it’s assets stolen is a win?
There is no takeaway from this experience for our cadre of domestic redshirts aka Berkeley thugs aka antifa aka Soros goons. If you’ve ever talked to a committed garden-variety south American Marxist, the problems in Venezuela are mostly the fault of foreign interests interfering with their Utopia. In all fairness, I have no doubt there is some foreign component, but a free market economic system would be resilient enough to react to circumstances.
And let’s be clear: the Berkeley scum are not garden-variety Marxists who might otherwise be well-intentioned. They are paid, violent, radical Soros operatives, like some of the color revolution cutouts used in targeted ME countries.
If those jobs come back to the USA ,, I call it a win . GM got what they deserve for going to Venezuela to save labor cost .
Lie with a dog.. get fleas.
Very true. Poor risk analysis on GM's part. Five environments need to be constantly gauged by any business executive: STEPC
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