General Motors Company
During the past few months it appears that General Motors (GM) has been thinking and attempting to CHANGE their image. CHANGE is a word in vogue. We heard it articulated by all the “career politicians” thousands of times during the last election season. Somehow the Naive American is convinced that CHANGE is good and something we need.
Rick Wagoner, GM’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) has been out and about attempting to change the image of his company. He has been a guest on several TV shows. On one of them he was asked about his salary and the airplanes he owns. Apparently GM’s stock is down and the company has been reporting millions of dollars in losses for the past several quarters, but the CEO and upper management appears to be very well compensated for the way they are managing the “thriving” auto maker.
The Naive American might have a taste for large, heavy, inefficient and fuel guzzler vehicles, but GM’s revenue is telling a different story. We still have a choice of Chrysler and Ford. Not that the models from those companies are much better, but at least their management and employees appear to be losing less money than GM.
In the 1980′s, Chrysler Corporation was about to collapse. In an attempt to save Chrysler, Lee Iacocca has hired as CEO. Between the government, his media appearances and the choices he made, Chrysler made a comeback (kudos to Mr. Iacocca). It appears that GM is attempting to repeat the feat.
Next time you’re on the road, look around and see how many American automobiles you see. Your observations will vary based on your location. Some areas have more cars while others (like Minneapolis and St. Paul in MN) have Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs), mini vans and pick up trucks.
A few months ago a colleague and I drove from Minneapolis, MN to the small town of Rugby, ND. The number of cars in the highway dramatically decreased after passing Fargo, ND and exiting the Interstate. The vehicle mix was also completely different. We would encounter a vehicle every five to ten minutes. Most of them (with the possible exception of our car) were American-made trucks. The drive takes a few hours between Fargo and Rugby. Not a single foreign-made car! For now, rural America appears to be purchasing homemade cars and trucks, but that might change in the near future. Just watch commercials on television for the sturdy (and large) Toyota Tundra. Other Asian car manufactures have similar trucks, cara and SUV entries.
Did the shift from American to Asian and European-made cars coincide with the rise of fuel prices? Could the Naive American blame the decay of the automobile industry on “career politicians?” The Middle East? Political parties?… The position of the moon, the sun and other cosmic bodies?
I am a James Bond fan. Last evening I watched the “Quantum of Solace” (much better than “Casino Royale”). Yes, beside the typical British-made Aston Martin DB2 (the DB2 retails for about two hundred thousand US Dollars) there were a few Ford vehicles. I am a proud owner of the entire “007″ movie collection. Have a few duplicates in different formats (e.g., VHS, DVD and now Blu-ray). While watching the older Bond films I noticed the ratio of American versus non-American vehicles had changed. It used to be that large American made cars were all over. The American-made automobile is going the way of the dodo.
The reasons for the car industry debacle are many. In the 1980′s Lee Iacocca and his hired lobbyist were able to change public opinion (and most importantly, government officials) that having two car manufacturing companies was going to create fierce competition between Ford and GM which could, in turn, lead to the demise of one of them leaving the Naive American with a single car manufacturer. I believe this “flawed logic” had something to do with anti-monopoly fears and laws.
I own several television sets; most Naive Americans do. Decades ago, all TV sets were designed and manufactured in the USA by American companies. Today there is not a single American-made television set. Perhaps I sidestep the monopoly issue by shopping at Amazon, Best Buy, Circuit City, Sam’s Club, or Wal-Mart just to mention a few.
In conclusion, if a company makes bad decisions and their products/services lack quality, why should the Naive American allow the US government to bail them out? Companies do not fail for just one reason, failures (esp. those on the scale of GM) are often linked to a long list of problems; some of them might hit close to home. Many Naive Americans work at GM. Could it be possible that we have something to do with the current state of affairs?
