Philosophy
So, GM CEO Rick Wagoner was ousted by Obama as a first step towards possibly saving the US's largest auto maker. To start, get the captain away from the bridge of the Exxon Valdez...(hey, it's a hackneyed metaphor that didn't mention the Titanic!)
Is Detroit salvageable? There is a problem endemic to the industry. I think of a story that Ralph Nader tells about his battles with them in the 60s. While fighting the war to include seatbelts (which the auto industry did everything in its power to avoid), he set his aim lower. A simple problem. The latches on car doors were designed badly so that in accidents the doors would fly open and passengers would get thrown from the car causing much greater harm. The solution was a redesign that would be a reworking of the same material, it would not cost a penny more to do it better. It would not cause any supplier to have to raise a price. It was a simple little change that would have no effect on the industry, but would save many lives. And the industry fought tooth and nail to stop it just because they didn't want to be told anything.
This attitude is still there. They destroy electric cars. They scoffed at building anything but Escalades, Explorers, Corvettes, and other prostetic gentilia with wheels. High school never ends. The people who populate these big corporations are the towel snapping jerks we all remember only the locker room is now the board room. Will removing one really change anything? Is the entire structure contaminated? Can the auto industry really change in the ways it would save it?
Aldo Leopold writes of farmers plowing under windbreaks to plant a few more rows just five years after they watched most of their nieghbors driven from their family farms by the winds of the dust bowl. Is this goingto be the same thing?
- High School Never Ends
President Obama says that his biggest mistake in handling the Gulf BP oil disaster is that he believed that the corporations were competent to handle their own mess. Yup. Incredibly stupid. Indeed, it is the backbone of contemporary conservatism that...
- Big Three In Big Trouble
The American car makers are in BIG TROUBLE. I used to drive a Ford. I loved my Festiva. It had 305k miles on it when I traded it in. I'm the sort of person that ought to be the target for the American car makers. I drive a Honda and will not drive...
- Sara Jane Olson And Radical Activism
Let's start off our third year with a guest post from C. Ewing. (Open invitation to Playground playfriends -- if anyone has something they'd like to see posted, please send it along. Always interested in guest posts and new voices.) So, noticing...
- Pardon My Cynicism
Mad Cow disease is one of TheWife's soapbox issues, so this wasn't news to me, but it is absolutely stunning. A small cattle ranch, Creek Stone Farms, wants to test all of its cows for Mad Cow disease and is being prevented by the government....
- Dow Chemical's Greatest Acquisition--ever!
An update to the post regarding a near 50% increase in chemicals by the chemical industry...Dow Chemical will acquire Rohm & Haas to the tune of $15, 300, 000.00. Chemical industry raises prices "Dow Chemical Buying a Rival for $15.3 Billion" by...
Philosophy
Springtime in Detroit?
So, GM CEO Rick Wagoner was ousted by Obama as a first step towards possibly saving the US's largest auto maker. To start, get the captain away from the bridge of the Exxon Valdez...(hey, it's a hackneyed metaphor that didn't mention the Titanic!)
Is Detroit salvageable? There is a problem endemic to the industry. I think of a story that Ralph Nader tells about his battles with them in the 60s. While fighting the war to include seatbelts (which the auto industry did everything in its power to avoid), he set his aim lower. A simple problem. The latches on car doors were designed badly so that in accidents the doors would fly open and passengers would get thrown from the car causing much greater harm. The solution was a redesign that would be a reworking of the same material, it would not cost a penny more to do it better. It would not cause any supplier to have to raise a price. It was a simple little change that would have no effect on the industry, but would save many lives. And the industry fought tooth and nail to stop it just because they didn't want to be told anything.
This attitude is still there. They destroy electric cars. They scoffed at building anything but Escalades, Explorers, Corvettes, and other prostetic gentilia with wheels. High school never ends. The people who populate these big corporations are the towel snapping jerks we all remember only the locker room is now the board room. Will removing one really change anything? Is the entire structure contaminated? Can the auto industry really change in the ways it would save it?
Aldo Leopold writes of farmers plowing under windbreaks to plant a few more rows just five years after they watched most of their nieghbors driven from their family farms by the winds of the dust bowl. Is this goingto be the same thing?
- High School Never Ends
President Obama says that his biggest mistake in handling the Gulf BP oil disaster is that he believed that the corporations were competent to handle their own mess. Yup. Incredibly stupid. Indeed, it is the backbone of contemporary conservatism that...
- Big Three In Big Trouble
The American car makers are in BIG TROUBLE. I used to drive a Ford. I loved my Festiva. It had 305k miles on it when I traded it in. I'm the sort of person that ought to be the target for the American car makers. I drive a Honda and will not drive...
- Sara Jane Olson And Radical Activism
Let's start off our third year with a guest post from C. Ewing. (Open invitation to Playground playfriends -- if anyone has something they'd like to see posted, please send it along. Always interested in guest posts and new voices.) So, noticing...
- Pardon My Cynicism
Mad Cow disease is one of TheWife's soapbox issues, so this wasn't news to me, but it is absolutely stunning. A small cattle ranch, Creek Stone Farms, wants to test all of its cows for Mad Cow disease and is being prevented by the government....
- Dow Chemical's Greatest Acquisition--ever!
An update to the post regarding a near 50% increase in chemicals by the chemical industry...Dow Chemical will acquire Rohm & Haas to the tune of $15, 300, 000.00. Chemical industry raises prices "Dow Chemical Buying a Rival for $15.3 Billion" by...