It Ain't Easy Being Green

[Mr Roxy]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 9:42pm

While we are being as green as Kermit, China took a big step toward keeping its status as # 1 polluter.

It just bought Hummer in the GM firesale. While we are producing our nice little green cars, China will now be turning out these gas guzzlers. They are a status symbol in China so just imagine how many China will turn out.

Barnum was right and we are the suckers.

[JustAGuy]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 10:57pm

Status symbol or not, you still have to be able to afford to buy them. Which is something I'm doubtful your average Chinese citizen will be able to do.

Urban incomes in China now average about $1,000 a year, while in the countryside incomes still average just over $300.

I don't see a lot of Hummer drivers when I look at those incomes.


Income In China

[SNAFU]

Posted: 6/3/09 at 11:21pm

They too will suffer what we are going through now as oil supplies dwindle and the price to run the gas guzzlers skyrockets. The car companies worldwide , who are doing well, are the ones that foresaw the need for fuel efficiency and greener technology moved on it before the wave crested.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 6/4/09 at 12:23am

In what world do we live in where "we are producing our nice little green cars?"

What mean "we," white man?

[TheatreDiva90016]

Posted: 6/4/09 at 12:30am

"It just bought Hummer in the GM firesale."

And you are complaining about China?!

Why didn't YOU buy something greener?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 6/4/09 at 12:35am

Of course he did, didn't he? I mean, he's whining about how "we've all gone green," so one can presume he's including himself, right? Why else would he feel so betrayed that China bought the big wasteful Hummer brand, if not that Roxy feels as if he has personally sacrificed such a great deal that he feels a deep sense of betrayal and hurt that the brand was not eliminated, since we've all gone green.

Right?

RIGHT ROXY?

[PS If you bother to respond, which you won't, PLEASE don't bring up idling buses and second hand cigarette smoke again, you've sung all your songs too many times before but that one in particular.]

[JerseyGirl2]

Posted: 6/4/09 at 12:43am

Let them have Hummer. I hate seeing the damn things on the road.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 6/4/09 at 11:41am

What kills me is the angle Roxy took in choosing to, well, "discuss" is not the right word when we're talking about Roxy... the angle he took to pronounce about the sale of Hummer.

He seems to be whining about all the effort "we" have made to "be green," as if you can glance out the window in any city and see nothing but hybrid vehicles and mini novelty cars. He frames this as if the American consumer has been a model of self-sacrifice, for the sake of future generations and the very existence of life on the planet itself. "We're" so "green," we probably think this story's about us. I mean, really, whining about the Chinese "getting" Humvees? And pointing out they're "status symbols" in China as if they are not status (and phallic) symbols here?

There is a worthy discussion topic here. And that's about the death of manufacturing in the US and the notion that vehicles with military uses will now be produced in China.

But Roxy missed that, because he can't see the forest for the green.

[Bluemoon]

Posted: 6/4/09 at 12:28pm

Well, for one thing, the new owner is looking at redesigning the Hummer for the AMERICAN consumer, not their countrymen and women.

Secondly, the terms of the sale will keep the vehicle's production here in the U.S. (since you'd want to stay near your target buyer).

So, we're still the fuel hogs and the Chinese working on a more energy efficient design.

"In the first public statement from Hummer's Chinese bidder, Yang Yi, CEO of Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery, said his company "will be investing in the Hummer brand and its research and development capabilities, which will allow Hummer to better meet demand for new products such as more fuel-efficient vehicles in the U.S." (See the 50 worst cars of all time.)

The deal, the price of which has not been disclosed, comes a day after GM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The U.S. automaker says the sale of Hummer, which GM valued at $500 million, should allow it to preserve more than 3,000 American jobs. Tengzhong says it plans to maintain Hummer's existing senior management team and will enter into long-term assembly and supply agreements with GM."

A little research can save you energy!

[SNAFU]

Posted: 6/4/09 at 12:36pm

If GM had begun working on a more efficient design a few years ago I believe they wouldn't be in quite the situation they are in now. Instead they looked at the short term profits rather then the long term company health. With an oil run White House that at one point was giving tax incentives to buy bigger cars it is understandable how they might have put off the need to retool their designs to fit a greener market.
The world changed and the manufacturers didn't, so like the dinosaurs before them they begin to slowly die off.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 6/4/09 at 2:43pm

Gee, Mr. Roxy seems to have vanished from the thread.