General Motors Corp.'s (NYSE:GM) near implosion has been partly a result of its slowness to make fuel-efficient cars. Could the slowness to adapt to the market's demand for fuel-efficient autos be blamed on some 8,000 GM executives receiving free gas?
National Public Radio says that GM doles out around $12 million a year in free gas for its white-collar workforce. With GM receiving $13 billion in government bailout money and likely asking for more, is this bonus of sorts excessive? Should it go the way of the Hummer?
"I would be totally in favor of eliminating this benefit," Rob Kleinbaum, a global strategist for GM, told NPR. "More because it would drive everybody in the company to be much closer to the marketplace and so they kind of feel the same things their customers feel."
Kleinbaum argues that the perk "reinforces a corporate insularity for which GM has been criticized in the past." Afterall, GM did lose $30 billion last year and is expected to continue to bleed to death unless the government provides more aid. The automaker says its evaluating the program but it's likely it'll look at the issue as quickly as it decided to make more fuel efficient cars. - Gerald Magpily
See NPR article
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