GM's New Unveiling

Yesterday I was invited to participate in a General Motors event for consumers. The event started at the GM Tech Center in Warran, MI. We then moved across the street where we watched pilot assembly of the new Volt, an electric car that can get up to 40 miles on one charge and 300 miles on a single tank of gasoline, giving it a total distance of 340 miles. Later in the day, we visited the GM Proving Grounds in Milford, Michigan. While at the Proving Grounds I had the opportunity to drive in a Volt. The New York Times is running an article on the Volt today entitled, "G.M. Says Volt will Get Triple-Digit City Mileage."

1. Bob Lutz, Vice Chairman of GM, explained that GM has been developing innovative, green friendly cars, for years. One of their largest problems is getting the word out to the public. If you could advise GM on three successful strategies to most effectively get the word out to the general public at the beginning of the Twenty First Century what would you advise? Why?

2. Bob Lutz explained that the federal government does not want to control GM operations, as a socialist government might. Instead the government simply wants to get its money back that it invested in GM. Based on your knowledge of the GM bailout, do you think that Mr. Lutz is correct? Why or why not?

3. In the introduction to this blog post, I explained the information that I learned about the Volt, yesterday. The information contained in the linked article contains some discrepancies. What can we learn about the written word from the differences in these two accounts? Is it really ever possible to verify the accuracy of written/spoken words? Why or why not? What questions would you ask in an attempt to verify accuracy?

4. What three industries do you think that it is most important to learn about in order to understand the United States economy? Why these specific industries?