MOTOWN REVISITED....
Here are a few solutions to the enormous problems facing the Detroit Car-makers...
Here's a plan, but it requires Mr. Obama to play a role too, finally relinquishing such chronic free-lunchism where autos are concerned. He should simply get rid of the CAFE rules and impose a gasoline tax to move the country to a "new energy economy," if he really believes in panicky climate predictions and/or that "energy independence" would be a net improver of American welfare. And be prepared for Detroit to shift jobs offshore if the UAW won't concede competitive labor agreements.
Not acceptable? Here's an alternative plan: Buy out the UAW with taxpayer dollars and free the Big Three to staff their factories with nonunion workers the way Toyota and Honda and BMW do. Last week's Hill circus notwithstanding, the negotiation that really needs to take place now is between Democrats and their union allies. The Big Three executives are just in the way.
Of course, Mr. Obama may have ideas of his own. His climate speech last week was Rube on steroids, aimed at creating whole client sectors of the economy dependent on his favor and endlessly flowing subsidies. It would be a poor excuse indeed of an economic depression that didn't create demagogic opportunities to boss around entire patches of the economy and extract political rents for doing so. There will be plenty of scope for Mr. Obama to head in this direction if he chooses.
I think that the latter plan is precisely the direction Obama will travel towards. The creation of a client State is a fascination for all leftists and Obama will see the problems of the US car makers as an opportunity.
David Vance
in America, Automobile manufacturers
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Reader Comments (1)
let them die!
Unless of course they want to comeback and start making a car with V-8 engine that puts out about 350-400hp in a car that sells for less than $15,000