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Warren Brown, 3/1/09, WashingtonPost: DETROIT'S CRITICS JUST DON'T GET IT

3K views 5 replies 6 participants last post by  igor 
#1 ·
hopefully everyone will know
if the author is Warren Brown
IT'S WORTH READING!
that's why his name is first in the thread title

tho I DID refrain from bolding & underlining his every other phrase like I wanted to...

Detroit's Critics Just Don't Get It
By Warren Brown
Sunday, March 1, 2009; Page G02

The nation that invented the automobile has no intention of walking away from it. That nation is Germany, which gave the world its first carriage powered by an internal combustion engine in 1885...

...Detroit is getting a bum rap.

And if President Obama does not understand that, just as he clearly does not understand some basic facts of automotive history, as indicated by his misstatement last week about which country invented the automobile, he is likely to do Detroit more harm than good...

...The Detroit that Washington loves to hate, the one that policy wonks and politicians think they can run better than industry professionals, stopped existing at least 15 years ago. It faded because executives at GM, Ford and Chrysler reached a consensus not fully embraced by Congress or the American consumer. To wit: Oil will not last forever.

Detroit's executives aren't stupid. Nor are they arrogant fools who care more for their own paychecks than they do for the their industry's or their country's future. They know that the car of the future will have to be powered by something other than gasoline or diesel -- or else there is no future...

...Finally, let's stop pretending that we are giving Detroit a "bailout" or a handout. We are making taxpayer loans to an industry that once was successful enough to pull several generations of people into the American middle class.

That industry is in trouble today for causes considerably beyond its control: wildly fluctuating fuel prices, the result of a government absent a commercially and environmentally effective energy policy; and a collapsed financial system that has put consumer credit on ice.

The Obama administration's automotive team needs to concentrate on repairing those things. What isn't needed is federal oversight, or interference, in the design and development of the kind of Detroit cars and trucks that "Americans want to buy."


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#3 ·
What really is killing me is the double standard between banks and the auto industry.

The Detroit 3 get chastised for flying on private jets (that they now have dumped) while banks that have taken billions more than have been given to GM or Chrysler and will need many billions more in the long run) are still flying around.

There actually are some good reasons for the Detroit 3 to have corporate planes. Like when you need to send 20 or 30 engineers to a plant that does not have an airport with commercial service nearby. I used to have to go to the Sharonville Transmission Plant years ago. Jump on the corporate plane (turbo prop) in Detroit with 30 other engineers, fly to some local airport in OH, get picked up in a shuttle, work a day and still be home by 7 PM !

The closest commercial airport is in KY and would have made it a 2 day trip with a rental car for sure.
 
#5 ·
Not to mention the massive taxes on big businesses and diesel. Those are crippling the auto industry and doing things that prevent them from bringing even more fuel efficient vehicles here to the US, such as the 60mpg diesel Ford Fiesta.
This is true. North America should harmonize safety and emissions standards with EU and Japan...And Adopt the right to work laws.
 
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