Lynne Kiesling
Sorry, Tim, but that’s not really earth-shattering news, is it? Anyway, Tim’s post critiquing Michael Moore’s recommendations to the Obama administration as majority shareholder in GM is highly entertaining. A taste to whet your appetite, but please do read Tim’s foment in all its glory:
And as the end days of oil approach us, get ready for some very desperate people willing to kill and be killed just to get their hands on a gallon can of gasoline.
I’m going out tonight to rent Mad Max and learn how to handle this. On second thought, that would mean driving my evil-machine of death and destruction, er I mean car. Better, I’ll use my HDTV and video on demand to learn how to save the planet Mel Gibson style.
President Obama, now that he has taken control of GM, needs to convert the factories to new and needed uses immediately.
Because government knows best.
2. Don’t put another $30 billion into the coffers of GM to build cars. Instead, use that money to keep the current workforce — and most of those who have been laid off — employed so that they can build the new modes of 21st century transportation. Let them start the conversion work now.
Slight rewrite: Don’t put another $30 billion into the coffers of GM to build cars. Instead let them sink or swim on their own. You know, like any other business that hasn’t been bailed out recently.
Supporting GM and Chrysler is merely delaying the inevitable. The Administration’s new CAFE standards for 2016 have put a torpedo into GM and Chrysler. In both cases, the watertight doors are already rusted open, so they will sink fast. Ford may take a little longer. Even as restructured, these companies will not be able to profit from the manufacture and sale of competitively priced 39 mpg vehicles.
The issue for the future of autos and light trucks in the US is whether the UAW will be sucked under by the whirlpools created by the sinking of the “Big 3” before they infect the US operations of foreign auto manufacturers such as Toyota and Honda. If not, virtually all autos and light trucks sold in the US will be manufactured overseas.
I just hope someone builds one of these “upholstered roller skates” that I can sit up straight in and drive. There are relatively few such vehicles already, largely as the result of aerodynamic streamlining to reduce drag.