Hello again friends and neighbors. It's been a little bit since I last updated the web site and I think some ranting and raving is long overdue.
On the Big 3 bailout... Don't do it.
1 - SCREW THE UAW! When asked why UAW members get paid by the manufacturers when they get laid off, Ron Gettlefinger, UAW President, said, "There's a perception problem." He's absolutely right, his perception is a problem. I've seen the videos of the work that happens on the assembly line to make a car and it is not worth ~$40 an hour a.k.a EIGHTY THOUSAND DOLLARS A YEAR. That's SALARY ONLY NOT BENEFITS. There is no plan on the table to address, negotiate or remedy this. There's waaay too many folks out there clamoring for the PRIVELIDGE of work. If you dumb sons-a-bitches can't figure out how much your entitlement point of view has contributed to the debacle the US auto industry is in today, then to hell with you and your membership.
2 - I bought a Ford Ranger 10 years ago and drove it for 1,500 miles when I discovered the bed was attached askew. When I asked them to loosen four torx bolts and straighten it up I was told that the fix was beyond the term of the cosmetic period of the warranty. A half dozen years later I had purchased another Ford product that was so bad, my wife and I returned the vehicle to Ford under the North Carolina Lemmon law. By and large the Big three did this to themselves. Without consequences, there will not be a change in behavior of the Big 3 or those watching this thing play out. We need to let Capitalism work even when the medicine tastes like a shit sandwich.
3 - Everyone seems to believe that if the Big 3 declare bankruptcy, it creates a void of some two million jobs. Bullshit. Existing parts manufacturers - not the Big 3 - will still be producing parts for existing vehicles Big 3 and non-Big 3. Some of the assets of the Big 3 will find their way into other auto manufacturing facilities. Void? Yes. Big void? Yes. Unrecoverable void? No. This needs to happen to allow the healing to begin on so many levels. Let me ask you this all you 40 and 50 year olds; If you had to choose between losing a substantial chunk of your retirement savings today or 5 to 7 years from today what would you choose? I'm making the assumption you comprehend the time value of money and answered today.
4 - With few exceptions, the product lines of the Big 3 are best described as lethargic and non-seminal with respect to alternative fuel product roadmaps. If I were any one of the CxOs that were duly grilled by Congress last week, I think I'd have promised a car that ran on greenhouse gasses and produced gold as a byproduct. They didn't come to town with a plan in hand??? They had to be asked for a plan?!?!?!? In 20 years in my field I've spent the last 5 to 7 in senior positions. Very few people that have ever worked for me have made this mistake more than once: Coming to the table having only identified a problem. The people I work with can identify problems and immediately suggest solutions. The best of the best tell me about problems I never knew about because remediation is already underway. This construct is likely tantamount to speaking Mandarin (which they better get used to) at the Headquarters of the Big 3.
5 - It is not the job of the US Government to compensate for mismanagement even on a massive scale. Doing so would...
- send a message of no consequences for atrocious behaviors
- inflate the national debt beyond the current amount that our great grandchildren will likely have to pay down/off
- subsidize private industry with taxpayer money
- distract the government from the fundamental things it should be doing now and is either not doing or is doing poorly
For perhaps the last ten years of my life I have fantasized about retirement quietly but with giddy abandon in my mind. Karen and I have worked hard and we save. Our losses in the last 11 months are beyond tens of thousands of dollars. The possibility of losing it all is real and it infuriates me that while doing everything we should be doing we've lost so much. For years, like harboring an incorrigible child, I bought American. And like an angry teenager I was insulted all along the way. I've done all I can and time's run out. Detroit, Big 3, I've had enough. You need to leave and leave now. I will not help you any more.
PS - Take that dumb son-of-a-bitch Blagojevich with you.
