Who’s to blame for GM’s financial woes?

After reading the Nov. 22 Opinion piece, “Silver spoons and rusted wrenches,” I wondered if Dean Bakopoulos had ever purchased a new GM-built product. He wrongly blames the government for GM’s problems instead General Motors itself. As a former disappointed owner of a GM-built product, I can tell you the problem is that GM’s products and services have not been as good as its Japanese competitors. After owning a number of well-made foreign vehicles, I see no sense to go back to GM products, even when they are often priced well below the competition. Yes, GM products are improved from the past, but why should I take another chance on them?

GM has massive liability for benefits owed to present and past workers, something the foreign carmakers that have plants in the U.S. will not have for decades. GM faces some real survival problems. The cure will not be government intervention described by Bakopoulos; his solutions will only accelerate the decline of GM.

MIKE NOVAK-SMITH

Riverside

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Thanks for pointing out all that is wrong with the union way of life that has prevailed in the Rust Belt for 50 years. Bakopoulos laments the passing of the day when his grandfather “slapped dashboards into Mustangs” and his union wages for unskilled labor were sufficient to provide two generations with homes, cars and college educations. He decries the passing of the Big Three without a word as to the reasons for the demise: extortionate union wages and benefits, wasteful work rules and shoddy work product.

Bakopoulos demands a “New Deal for the Rust Belt because the old deal has gone sour.” What a joke -- the unions choked their gift horse until it died and now they expect taxpayers to ride to their rescue.

For years we put up with overpriced, poor-quality automobiles until better and cheaper foreign models became available. Now that the unions have destroyed the industry, it is not our responsibility to bail out the union workers. Recall the parable of the ant and the grasshopper.

W. JAMES HARRISON

Tucson