In 232 years as a willfully independent country, never before has the American consumer been at fault for a region, company or industry going belly up. Never.
But if you subscribe to the message from the rank-and-file of the United Auto Workers (UAW), it's our fault that General Motors, Chrysler and Ford is in dire straits. It's our fault just a few buyers to the right of nobody buys their products these days. You know, those unimaginative, boxy, boring domestics that have been built for way too many years on tired, outdated platforms. Yeah, those cars, the cars that aren't worth as much at initial sale as their foreign competition and certainly can't hold the higher values after initial sale, either. Those cars that you've been told for years and years never to purchase if they were built at the plant on a Monday or Friday. Yeah, those cars.
If we would just simply ignore everything this side of common sense and mindlessly buy domestic cars, America would be humming, magnolia trees would be in full bloom year-round and the temperature would be 70 degrees everyday. At least, that's what the UAW wants you to believe. It's our fault.
It's our fault? Usually it's the time-tested axioms from the supply-and-demand theory, that if a company doesn't bring to market a product that the masses can support in the way of demand, the product fails and the company follows. The company bears the responsibility to bring a product to market that creates demand, outstrips supply, creates production jobs and then profitability follows.
Who's kidding who, here? That doesn't sound like our car companies, does it? No, the reality is our car companies are cranking out cars by the ton that nobody is buying, but does that halt the plants? No, and when the lack of demand results in layoffs, there's the job bank, this marvelous creation where you sit on your can and get paid to do nothing...after you've drained the union and state benefits dry.
It's our fault? How long have 'we' been picking up the tab already?
I do think the auto companies need a bailout, but I doubt they'll get it and I'm even further convinced they don't deserve it. Maybe they will and Detroit will get the cash infusion they need. I live here so I'm not going to say it wouldn't help, but I'm also not going to become a shrill voice for the auto companies like some other media-ites in the Detroit area and ignore facts for the sake of making listeners, viewers and friends. I don't trust that the leaders of the car companies will spend our money wisely, and the rest of the country certainly has no faith in the Big Three. There, I said it. I see it every time I travel outstate. There are people who really believe Detroiters wade through knee-high trash with assault rifles held above their heads. What do you think those people think about our car companies? Unfair? Yes. But perception is truth to many people, and it's up to us to change it.
GM's making money hand-over-fist in China, where they invested billions in the 1990s. Ford's European market share is very strong. I can't feel bad when these car companies made their bed with UAW contracts stateside that defy any semblance of logic and then complain when the rules they agreed to curtail any chance of profitability in the here & now. When I'm in New York City, the only Ford I ever see is yellow with an hourly rate published on the doors. Yes, Ford is making a much better product than it has in many years, and it shows in multiple high quality ratings. But just like it took many years to erode the market share and confidence of the American consumer in American production cars, it will take many years to build it back up.
Therefore, the real question is will a bailout for the domestic automakers give them the needed time to recover from their mistakes?
Part of me wants to see a bailout because I know a lot of good people -- hell, great people -- are living daily with the fear that their job is a goner, and I hate that. On the other hand, maybe it's time for the Detroit region to untie itself from the shackles of the manufacturing roller-coaster. Yes, the good times are good but the bad times are awful and it might be the perfect time to seek a different mantra for the Motor City. We're already struggling, so can we tough it out to re-make ourselves into a new community with a new mindset and new way of life? We have a significant legal and medical community. Renewable energy platforms are extremely viable with natural resources like water and wind in abundant quantities. There are jobs to be created here -- are we savvy enough to see our way out of the forest of fallen trees? If the automakers are really the corporate citizens they claim to be, how about bidding on and building a mass-transit system that could be used nationwide that includes Detroit, which hasn't had any transit in nearly 60 years. Anyone who has lived or visited Europe, much less New York, Boston or Chicago knows all the things that America isn't. Amtrak and Greyhound don't count, either.
No matter what side of the fence you fall on, it certainly isn't the consumer's fault. The country didn't fall apart at the seams when the textile industry and electronics industry went overseas. The car industry's on it's way out the door, and in my opinion, the sooner Detroit's constituency of white and blue-collar sectors alike plan on being something other than the Motor City, the better.
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