In near-perfect contrast of cluelessness and canniness are two stories simultaneously in the recent news. First, Eric Cantor, the newest new face of old ideas, claims the Democrats are overreacting to the economic crisis. Second, the Chinese are planning to lead the world in electric cars. It'll create jobs, they say, reduce pollution, and lessen their dependency on foreign oil. Huh.
Meanwhile, in the US the latest unemployment figures are released, the worst in decades, and major leaders around the world met in London to address what they see as a crisis demanding drastic global solutions. Among other moves, they pledged to pump over a trillion dollars into the IMF, and to toughen international banking rules (goodbye, off-shore tax havens). Clear-eyed, the UN Secretary General sees grave economic danger. These are not, one might be excused for thinking, facts that tend to confer on Cantor the mantle of wisdom.
For decades Congressional Republicans have thwarted efforts to raise mileage standards for US cars. Jimmy Carter, a favorite whipping boy of right-wingers, put into place a number of regulations aimed at reducing oil imports, all of which were reversed by Ronald Reagan. Hyped by our automakers, Americans bought SUVs by the millions, considering it a birthright. The GM guy just fired was the brains behind that scrotum on wheels, the Hummer. And now, way too late, our industry is trying to save itself. Asking us to save it. From decades of political denial.
Denial has been decenter of Republican policy for decades. Cantor suggests things aren't all that bad, while the rest of the world takes action; while millions have lost jobs here, with many more sure to go, he reaches into an empty bag of tricks. While the Chinese are positioning themselves to grab the future and run away with it, the Republican party insists we were doing great till Obama showed up. It seems a perfect primer on where we've been and why we're in danger of being left behind. Ignorance vs action. Head in sand vs eyes on the prize. Ideological non-thinking vs practical vision.
Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and their psychically wounded followers are weeping and gnashing teeth and seeing demons. Fascism. Or is it socialism? Communism? Change is hard. And for them, it's foundationally frightening. Stay with what we've been doing, they cry. Other than destroying us, it's been fine. These aren't blinders, they insist: they're magic vision enhancer thingies.
Fortunately, people like Cantor are no longer in power, although they have been for most of the last half-century -- more than enough to have done possibly irreparable damage. For now, at this terrible time, realists are now in charge. But the destruction is very great, and to admit it is to admit failure. So Cantor -- with the rest of his party leaders standing weakly behind him -- just denies, carrying the torch passed to him through decades of damaging delusion.
I guess GM and Ford and Chrysler can hope the Chinese cars will be found to be poisoning us like their toys and dog food. Maybe Eric Cantor and his party can send their poison where it'll do some good.
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There is so, so much wrong with the US auto industry. I wonder if it is worth saving.
ReplyDeleteI just read somewhere that there was friction in the Mercedes/Chrysler merger because dozens of managers at Chrysler were making more than the CEO of Mercedes.
During the waves of layoffs in Detroit it was always the factory floor workers getting laid off, not the managers.
During the early eighties we collectively felt very bad because the Japanese built better cars. How could they be so much better? Management types said it was "just in time delivery" or this or that. Then Honda opened a plant in the US, and US workers demonstrated that they can build cars as well as the Japanese. This is a fish rotting from the head.
The big three gradually grew into niche players. We make the Hummer and huge pickup trucks and that Dodge wagon with the weirdly small weird window and the retro PT Cruiser and so on. Japanese cars have little personality but they are so easy to own. I heard of a biker who had both Harley and a Suzuki motorcycles. He said, "I treat my Suzuki like my ex-wife but it just keeps going."
To be fair the unions are partly to blame for the automakers' woe. They negotiated the crippling pension plans.
However, I think it is largely Ayn Rand-think among management which poisoned the US auto industry, just as it did Wall Street. As I pointed out before, it's ironic how the set which preaches the sanctity of capitalism in truth wants anything but.
Incidentally I must confess an ongoing sense of surprise at your deftness in finding appropriate images. I wonder if you are more patient than I at scrolling through Google images or if there's some resource with which I'm unfamiliar.
Best,
Sam Spade
Sam: I agree with your auto-points; in particular the Ayn Rand reference.
ReplyDeleteAs to my pictures: I'm glad you noticed. I take a little pride in the effort. But, no, I just use Google images. It's about deciding what phrase to search. The trick is to think about some sort of word or phrase that expresses it, or which is a nice visual pun on what you're trying to say. Anyhow, I do put some thought into it -- as I do in some of the humorous links I slip in -- and I'm glad someone appreciates it.