Refocusing Lingering Outrage from Campaign 2008 to Our Brain Dead Auto Industry

This could be a sign I'm recovering from post-2008 campaign malaise, which is definitely a result of the prolonged lack of opportunity in my left-wing, Obama-swooning social circle to express my outrage at the sexism and misogyny of so-called progressives and their media allies.

But here’s the deal: I just rallied myself to read with interest a column by Tom Friedman on our ailing auto industry, and Mr. Friedman, whose usual terrain is foreign affairs has had it with Detroit – and with good reason.

Friedman writes:

“Last September, I was in a hotel room watching CNBC early one morning. They were interviewing Bob Nardelli, the C.E.O. of Chrysler, and he was explaining why the auto industry, at that time, needed $25 billion in loan guarantees. It wasn’t a bailout, he said. It was a way to enable the car companies to retool for innovation. I could not help but shout back at the TV screen: “We have to subsidize Detroit so that it will innovate? What business were you people in other than innovation?” If we give you another $25 billion, will you also do accounting?”

Friedman summarizes a few of the reasons that the American auto industry is collapsing:

“How could these companies be so bad for so long? Clearly the combination of a very un-innovative business culture, visionless management and overly generous labor contracts explains a lot of it. It led to a situation whereby General Motors could make money only by selling big, gas-guzzling S.U.V.’s and trucks. Therefore, instead of focusing on making money by innovating around fuel efficiency, productivity and design, G.M. threw way too much energy into lobbying and maneuvering to protect its gas guzzlers.

“This included striking special deals with Congress that allowed the Detroit automakers to count the mileage of gas guzzlers as being more than they really were — provided they made some cars flex-fuel capable for ethanol. It included special offers of $1.99-a-gallon gasoline for a year to any customer who purchased a gas guzzler. And it included endless lobbying to block Congress from raising the miles-per-gallon requirements. The result was an industry that became brain dead.”

Whoa! Our brain dead auto industry?

‘“Nothing typified this more than statements like those of Bob Lutz, G.M.’s vice chairman. He has been quoted as saying that hybrids like the Toyota Prius “make no economic sense.’ And, in February, D Magazine of Dallas quoted him as saying that global warming ‘is a total crock of [expletive].’

“These are the guys taxpayers are being asked to bail out.”

Well, yes, it’s a good sign of my mental and emotional health that I’m still capable of getting worked up over the evident stupidity of the leaders in a key component of our national economy. As Friedman points out later on in his op-ed, an auto industry failure will throw millions more out of work and further delay the nation’s recovery from the global financial crisis – it’s getting uglier every day.

Friedman’s column titled How to Fix a Flat is well worth reading, wherever you find yourself in the political spectrum several mornings after the election on Nov. 4.

If Katalusis readers have insights into this mess, please post a comment. I’d love to hear from you.