I have zero faith in the executives running The Big Three Automakers as they ooze their way into Washington again.
They have spent billions on campaign contributions and lobbyists to stonewall any and all regulations of their industry to force them to innovate and invest instead of pat themselves on the backs with ludicrous performance bonuses.
They have spent billions on advertising and promoting products that do not meet the needs of this society, offering bigger towing capacities and more horsepower to satisfy delusions of machoness when economy and reliability are the future.
Let. Them. Go. Bankrupt.
Yes, it will shake the industrial base of this country.
But it will also force it to think, retool, reorganize, and come up with solutions that are sustainable, less wasteful, and evolve hand-in-hand with the support infrastructure.
I don't think they're capable of it. They're already trying to squirm out from under the restrictions of the $25 billion in loans they've been given by Congress, looking for ways to ignore the requirements to spend a small portion of it on long-term solutions and R&D to keep the old "bigger tailfins!" mentality going.
Take the $25 billion back and instead off it up as a prize to the company that comes up with a sustainable, intelligent, can evolve out of existing infrastructure, and scalable solution.
Pick a city. Any city. Roll out your solution there.
Not glossies. Nor mockups. Not animations or videos or jingles.
A solution that can be seen, tried, and hands-on evaluated.
Requires matching innovations with energy providers, parking garages, maintenance shops, municipalities?
Fine. Add that to the project, and find a locale that wants the associated jobs bad enough to boost its economy during the project rollout. They'll make the changes if they want the cash injection bad enough.
If it works, you live.
If you whine, you die.
It's not just an auto manufacturer solution we need. We need all transportation-related industries to work together to come up with a solution for this, and then government to get out of the early Nineteenth Century to clear out old loopholes and laws that allow the industry to wallow in failure and call it success in 30-second spurts on television.
Once again, I don't think they're capable of it.
Which makes me wonder if we, as a nation, is capable of it. Or anything besides yelling "Yes we can!" at political rallies but "No we can't!" when there's a problem needing a bigger picture solution, really.
Comments (2)
Those expenses you list above are really not that important. The real problem is the stranglehold the UAW has on the companies. The companies are spending on average more than 70 bucks an hour in pay, medical and retirement for each and every employee.
And google GM Job Bank sometime. The last time I knew, more than 12,000 employees were sitting on their hands, doing nothing productive, at their full pay and benefits. This was part of the deal with the UAW when plants were built with automation, and those workers became superfluous.
The companies have 160 billion in debt, and only seven billion in assets. The tax laws in Michigan are horrible and the regulations insane.
Until these issues are discussed, no reorganization will ever help. Simply closing the plants will not help. It took decades, since before I graduated High School, for this situation to develop.
Ah, where was my high school? Class of 1977, Waverly High, Delta Township, Lansing, MI. The former home of Oldsmobile. At least 50 of my classmates are either still working for or have retired from, Olds and then GM.
You're right, Laurence. Let them fail. And then what?
Posted by David M. Hartzell | December 2, 2008 6:07 PM
Posted on December 2, 2008 18:07
Agreed right up to the end bit. Hell yeah we can. We've just been too busy attack one another to realize it. When asked to, as a people, we have a hell of a track record of coming together to kick some major ass. Usually takes a big ass problem for us to re-focus our energies and start working together. Good for us that we've got some big as problems now, eh?
Posted by Caleb | December 2, 2008 6:31 PM
Posted on December 2, 2008 18:31